March 8, 14 Rivalries Strike Efforts to Avoid Presidential Vacuum as 52 MPs Cast Blank Votes
Lawmakers failed to elect a new president on Wednesday, the result of rivalry between the March 8 and 14 camps as no candidate was able to garner the needed two-thirds of votes to become Lebanon's next head of state.
Speaker Nabih Berri chaired the session at noon Wednesday after 124 MPs attended it, securing the required two-thirds quorum.
But Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea received the votes of only 48 MPs while 16 lawmakers voted for Aley lawmaker Henri Helou, one for Kataeb party chief ex-President Amin Gemayel and 52 MPs cast blank ballots.
Seven votes were canceled for not being consistent with rules and regulations.
Berri set next Wednesday to hold the second round of the polls, stressing that a candidate should secure a simple majority of 65 votes to be elected.
The MPs who failed to attend the session are Saad Hariri, Oqab Saqr, Elie Aoun and Khaled al-Daher.
Geagea received the official backing of his March 14 alliance on Tuesday, but he only secured 48 votes, well below the 86 votes of the 128-member parliament, and despite the attendance of 51 MPs from the coalition.
His wife, MP Sethrida Geagea, held a short press conference, expressing surprise at the number of blank votes.
“What happened to the strong candidate they were calling for?” she asked.
She stressed that the March 14 camp was united during Wednesday's session, vowing to "remain in this battle till the end.”
“We will bless the person who wins it,” the MP said.
Helou, who was on Tuesday nominated by the leader of the National Struggle Front MP Walid Jumblat, garnered the votes of the 16 centrist MPs in parliament.
Jumblat, a centrist, who has said that Helou is a “voice of moderation,” stressed after the session that the Aley lawmaker will remain the candidate of centrists.
Helou praised the “democratic process,” saying the voting took place without any foreign intervention.
He said the only solution to electing a new president comes through “moderation.”
An Nahar daily quoted sources as saying that Helou wasn't personally planning the announcement of his candidacy.
The MP is afraid that “the next president would be the vacuum due to the rivalries,” they said.
The sources added that he accepted Jumblat's offer because his candidacy would contribute to ending the dispute between the two camps and lead to the election of a consensual president.
The March 8 alliance on Wednesday clearly stood against Geagea's candidacy by casting blank votes. The number of protest votes cast was 52 although 57 of the coalition's MPs attended the session.
The coalition's stance is aimed at sending a message to its March 14 rivals on the need to elect a consensus president.
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun has on several occasions said that he wouldn't announce his candidacy if the rivals didn't reach a deal on him.
He withdrew from parliament along with a large number of March 8 MPs after the voting count started.
“We withdrew from parliament after it became clear that there is no consensus over one candidate,” Aoun said in a news conference after the session.
The presidency is reserved for Maronite Christians under the National Pact of 1943.
President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ends at midnight on May 24. He will leave Baabda Palace the next day.
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