Lebanon sets January 9 to elect president after two-year power vacuum

 

Lebanon has been without a head of state since 2022 due to the inability of local parties and actors to reach a consensus. However, the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel accelerates the need for an agreement and Parliament has scheduled a session to elect a head of state on January 9, amid the fragile truce.

Lebanon is accelerating the election of a president after two years of stalemate and amid a fragile truce between Hezbollah and Israel.

After more than a year of escalating cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah and two months of a ground incursion by troops from the Jewish-majority state into southern Lebanon, the parties to the conflict announced a ceasefire on November 26 and this Thursday the Lebanese Parliament has decided to meet on January 9 to elect a president.

 I pledged to set a date for the presidential election immediately after the ceasefire.

 The new president will be elected in a parliamentary session, which underlines the importance of a consensus between political parties.

“The speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, calls the deputies to a session to elect a president of the Republic on January 9,” reported the Lebanese National Information Agency (ANI).

At the start of a public session that began with a minute of silence for the victims of the war, Berri declared: “I have committed to setting a date for the presidential election immediately after the ceasefire.”

The session was dedicated to the extension of the mandates of the heads of the security apparatus, according to the daily 'L’Orient-Le Jour'.

Berri, who heads the influential Shiite movement Amal, an ally of Hezbollah, had already urged “speeding up the election of a president.” He stressed that this figure must “unite and not divide” the Lebanese, whose differences have deepened with the war.

For some Lebanese citizens, Hezbollah, by supporting Hamas in Israel's ongoing war in Gaza by firing rockets into Israel's northern neighbour, has dragged Lebanon into a conflict that the country could not afford. Others, however, see Hezbollah as a resistance that protects the southern border.

With the ceasefire in effect since the early hours of Wednesday, November 26, Lebanese interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for a “new page” to be opened for the country and called for an early presidential election. France, which collaborated with the United States in the negotiations for the truce, also advocated for accelerating the process.

“The restoration of Lebanon's sovereignty requires the immediate election of a president,” said Emmanuel Macron.

According to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, this election is key for the Lebanese Armed Forces to regain their legitimacy and exercise control of the force in the country. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army has begun to reinforce its presence in the south of its nation, in coordination with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

For its part, Israel has 60 days to progressively withdraw its troops, as stipulated in the truce agreement.

You may be interested

Israel attacks Hezbollah in southern Lebanon after ceasefire

Lebanon faces a multiple crisis: political, economic and geopolitical

Since the end of President Michel Aoun's mandate on October 31, 2022, Lebanon has been without a head of state.

This stalemate reflects the deep political, economic and geopolitical crisis that the country is going through. In Lebanon, the presidency is reserved for Christian communities, but local actors have failed to agree on a representative figure, divided between their loyalties to Iran and Syria on the one hand, and to the West and the Gulf countries on the other.

The lack of a head of state and the legislative blockage have aggravated the crisis, preventing the enactment of laws or any progress towards a solution.

Since the outbreak of hostilities more than a year ago between Hezbollah, the powerful pro-Iranian Islamist movement, and Israel, the Lebanese political landscape has changed significantly.

The urgency of electing a president and uniting political forces to prevent the fragmentation of the country has become more pressing than ever. The conflict escalated in September, when Israel launched a massive bombing campaign along with ground operations in southern Lebanon. This confrontation left a devastating toll of nearly 4,000 people killed and approximately 900,000 displaced in the country of the cedar.

Hezbollah emerges weakened after these months of fighting. The death of its top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an Israeli bombing at the end of September, marked a critical blow for the group. His successor, Naïm Qassem, promised in a speech on November 20 to actively contribute to the presidential election.