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March 14 MPs gather in parliament in a show of force against presidential vacuum

24-05-2014 | 11:57

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March 14 MPs gather in parliament in a show of force against presidential vacuum

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March 14 MPs gathered in the Parliament on Saturday evening to express their rejection to the presidential void after the lawmakers failed to elect a successor to Michel Sleiman, whose mandate ends on May 25.

Sleiman, a former army general, was chosen in 2008 as a consensus president in a deal which ended one of the worst bouts of street fighting since 1990, when fighters from Hezbollah and Amal movement fought with March 14 supporters.

He later fell out with Hezbollah and its allies after he criticized the group's role in Syria and called for it to withdrew its fighters back to Lebanon.

Hezbollah, its allies including Christian ally Michel Aoun and the head of Amal movement Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri did not attend the ceremony.

Lebanon's presidency, allocated to the Maronite Christian community under Lebanon's sectarian division of power, is one of the three main political offices alongside the prime minister - a Sunni Muslim - and parliamentary speaker - a Shiite.

The power of the presidency, once the leading political office in Lebanon, was eroded under the accord which ended Lebanon's civil war, handing greater influence to the government and prime minister.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Tammam Salam took a year to find support for the government he formed in March, while parliamentary elections which were due last summer were postponed until this November, stymied by the same standoff holding up the choice of new president.

With no agreement in sight, some Lebanese fear that even parliamentary elections could be postponed, but Suleiman called on the parliament to swiftly pass an electoral law and avoid any delay in holding the vote.

REUTERS

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