Despite pressure by the United States and others to elect a president in order to receive financial support, a consensus candidate has yet to emerge who can clearly end Lebanon’s political gridlock.
Lebanon’s deeply divided Parliament is set Thursday to try to elect a new president, potentially ending a yearslong political vacuum and ushering in a degree of stability for a country reeling from its bloodiest war in decades.
For more than two years, the tiny Mediterranean nation has been paralyzed by political gridlock and led by a weak caretaker government through a series of upheavals, including a historic economic collapse, a destructive war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the collapse of the Assad regime in neighboring Syria.
Lebanon’s election of a president would be the first step in forming a full-fledged government with a mandate to steady the country. But, despite the urgency, it remains unclear whether anyone will be elected at all.
The country’s Parliament is fractured along sectarian lines and lawmakers have failed in 12 previous votes to elect a new president since October 2022, when Michel Aoun stepped down from the office at the end of his six-year term.
The vote on Thursday could be no different. Lebanon is facing diplomatic pressure by the United States and other foreign donors who have hinged postwar financial support on the election of a president. But it is not clear that the leading candidate, Joseph Aoun, the U.S.-backed commander of the Lebanese military (and unrelated to the former president), will receive enough votes to be elected.