Lebanese Parliament Once Again Fails to Elect New President

(Bloomberg) -- Lebanon’s parliament again failed to elect a new president for the crisis-wracked country, after the two main candidates fell short of gaining the needed majority to win.

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Jihad Azour, the head of the International Monetary Fund’s Middle East arm, received 59 votes, while his main rival Suleiman Franjieh got 51 out of the 128 ballots.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah group, a powerful militia and political party, and its allies supported Franjieh, an ex-lawmaker who’s a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

Influential Christian groups and opposition parties favor Azour, a former finance minister.

Under Lebanon’s complex political system, the presidency is usually given to a Christian Maronite, while the prime minister is a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shiite Muslim. This was Lebanon’s 12th parliamentary session to name a president since former President Michel Aoun’s term expired in October.

In a statement last week, Azour said he wanted his candidacy to unite the Lebanese to exit what he described as “magnanimous economic challenges.”

“I am here on a simple, yet big, mission and that is to help us exit this anomalous situation and set the stage for a prosperous future,” said Azour, who took leave from the IMF last week after being nominated for the presidency.

IMF’s Mideast Head Azour To Relinquish Position Temporarily

“Dangerous Crossroads”

Electing a president is crucial to forming a new government and passing reforms needed to unlock funds under a $3 billion IMF program and revive the collapsed economy.

Poverty has soared, inflation has hit 270%, the currency’s plunged and the government’s in default on around $30 billion of Eurobonds. In 2021, the World Bank said Lebanon’s financial woes might rank as one of the three most severe anywhere since the mid-nineteenth century.

Lebanon is “at a dangerous crossroads, and without rapid reforms will be mired in a never-ending crisis,” the IMF said in March.

The Washington-based lender is asking Lebanon to approve a capital control law and an audit of its banking sector and its central bank to better understand its unrealized losses.

Legacy of Political Turmoil Complicates Lebanon’s Debt Crisis

A new government would also have to face the tough task of naming a new central bank governor, whose term expires at the end of July.

Riad Salameh has been at the helm of the central bank since 1993 and his legacy has been mired with European investigations into corruption and money laundering allegations.

Interpol Issues Arrest Warrant for Lebanon Central Bank Governor

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