Noticias

Prime Minister Tammam Salam warned against a “presidential vacuum” in Lebanon after lawmakers on Wednesday failed for the third time to elect a successor to President Michel Suleiman, whose term in office ends on May 25.

The Maronite bishops Wednesday criticized statements made by some lawmakers on a presidential void, stressing the need for the election to be held on time.

“We are worried by statements made by some MPs about a void,” the bishops said in a statement after their monthly meeting.

“It is as if they [lawmakers] are declaring themselves disabled,” the statement added.

“MPs need to elect a president according to the Constitution and ensure that their duties and responsibilities are performed,” they said from Bkirki, seat of the Maronite Church.

El vicesecretario general del partido-milicia chií libanés Hezbolá, Naim Qassem, ha afirmado este miércoles que las condiciones políticas que atraviesa el país no son las adecuadas para celebrar elecciones presidenciales, por lo que ha advertido de que "no tiene sentido" seguir adelante "si no cambian estas condiciones".

   "Si se celebra una segunda, tercera o cuarta sesión bajo estas mismas condiciones, el resultado será claro y no se elegirá a ningún presidente", ha sostenido, según ha informado el diario libanés 'An Nahar'.

Lebanon's parliament has failed to elect a new president, in what is set to be a prolonged saga closely linked to Syria's upcoming election in June, political analysts say.

The parliamentary session began at noon on Wednesday. No candidate succeeded in getting the minimum 86 votes, or a two-thirds majority, needed to win the presidency. 

An independent Syrian lawmaker registered Wednesday as the first challenger in a June presidential election widely expected to return incumbent Bashar al-Assad to power despite a raging civil war.

Assad's government hit back at a torrent of international criticism of its decision to call the election despite the violence that has killed more than 150,000 people in three year, insisting it was its sovereign right to do so.

Assad has yet to declare his own candidacy but he is widely expected to stand and win a new seven-year term.

Lebanese Christian politician Samir Geagea announced on Friday he will run for president in an election due next month, the first candidate to formally enter a race overshadowed by growing violence and months of political paralysis.

President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ends in late May. Parliament must approve his successor with a two-thirds majority.

The vice-chairman of Geagea's Lebanese Forces party, George Adwan, told party members the group's executive body "unanimously nominates party chief Samir Geagea for the Lebanese presidential election."

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai met with President of the Central Maronite Council Wadih Khazen Tuesday to stress the need to hold a presidential election and avoid a political vacuum. 

“His Eminence confirmed the importance of preventing any vacuum in official positions in the country, whether political or administrative … stressing the need for and the importance of the transition to presidential elections,” Khazen said. 

President Michel Sleiman is pushing to see a new government headed by Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam announced before the former leaves in September for the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York, sources close to the president told The Daily Star Tuesday.