Lebanese presidential vote ends in parliamentary schism

The Lebanese presidential election conducted in Parliament today, attended by 124 of 128 MPs, failed to give any single candidate anything close to the 86 votes needed to secure a majority in this round of voting.

The majority of ballots cast were empty, with 52 members opting to lodge a protest vote rather than selecting any of the 4 official candidates.

48 of the members selected Samir Geagea, the controversial former head of the Lebanese Forces, to succeed Michel Suleiman, the current president whose term is set to run out on May 25th.

The vote was followed by a walk-out from many members of the March 8 Alliance, a coalition dominated by Hezbollah and strongly opposed to Geagea’s candidacy.

In addition to the 52 blank ballots, most of which were entered by members of the March 8 alliance, many commentators have drawn attention to the 7 spoiled ballots from today’s election.  

All of these ballot papers bore the names of slain MPs such as Dany Chamoun, the son of former President Camille Chamoun, who was killed along with his family in 1990.

Geagea served 11 years in prison for his involvement in Chamoun’s death, until his acquittal in 2005.

In a press conference convened immediately after the parliamentary vote, the staunch Hezbollah opponent described today’s ballot as ‘a great victory’, and a step forward for Lebanon, which is holding its first presidential elections since the end of Syrian military presence there in 2005.

He went on to allege that members of the March 8 Coalition, which did not field a candidate in this round of voting, were deliberately obstructing proceedings to select a new president.

Lebanese citizens, meanwhile, are taking to social media following the collapse of the vote, which many commentators had predicted.

The spoiled votes attracted much attention, with some hailing them as a brave act of opposition to Geagea’s candidacy:

However, his supporters remained active on Twitter, using the hashtag ‘Samir_Geagea_represents_me’.

Others still used the occasion to voice disillusionment with the entire post-war political landscape in Lebanon, and to question whether the post of president has any significance at all:

After today’s failed vote, hopes are being pinned on a second round of balloting to be held on 30th April. In the upcoming sitting, the winning candidate will only be required to secure a simple majority of 65 votes before taking leadership.