BEIRUT —
Lebanese lawmakers failed for a
seventh time Thursday to elect a successor to former president Michel Aoun,
even though the vacancy is hampering efforts to rescue the stricken economy.
اضافة اعلان
Parliament is split between supporters of the
powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its opponents, neither of whom have
a clear majority.
Lawmaker
Michel Moawad, who is seen as close to the US, won the support of 42 of parliament’s
128 MPs, but his tally fell well short of the required majority and was
exceeded by the number of spoilt ballots cast by pro-Hezbollah lawmakers.
Moawad’s candidacy is opposed by Hezbollah, whose
leader Hassan Nasrallah called this month for a president ready to stand up to
the United States.
“This is not an electoral process, it’s a process of
waiting for compromise that is to the detriment of the country, the people, the
economy and the constitution,” said Christian MP and Moawad supporter Samy
Gemayel.
There have been delays in electing previous Lebanese
presidents.
Aoun’s own election in 2016 followed a more than
two-year vacancy at the presidential palace as lawmakers made 45 failed
attempts before reaching a consensus on his candidacy.
But the failure to elect a successor to Aoun before
his mandate expired at the end of last month came with Lebanon mired in an
economic crisis the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in modern history.
The country has also had only a caretaker government
since May, despite warnings from creditors that sweeping reforms need to be
enacted to clear the way for the release of billions of dollars in emergency
loans.
“An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely
further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and critical reform
ratification, deepening the woes of the Lebanese people,” the World Bank warned
in a statement on Wednesday.
“Lebanon’s total contraction of 37.3 percent in real
GDP since 2018 — among the worst the world has seen — has already wiped out 15
years of economic growth and is scarring the country’s potential for recovery.”
Parliament will convene for an eighth attempt to
elect a new president on December 1.
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