9/1/2025–|Last updated: 1/9/202503:51 PM (Mecca time)
The Lebanese Parliament elected Army Commander General Joseph Aoun as President of the country, after counting the votes in the second round of parliamentary voting to elect a President of the Republic after the position had been vacant for more than two years.
Aoun was elected with 99 votes in the second round of voting during a session attended by all 128 representatives.
This afternoon, the Lebanese Parliament suspended its consultation session after failing to elect a president for the country in the first round.
The first session of Parliamentary Session No. 13 ended without electing a President of the Republic, because none of the candidates received a number of votes equivalent to two-thirds of the 128 representatives, as stipulated in the Constitution.
After a session attended by all members of Parliament, the Army Commander, General Joseph Aoun, obtained 71 votes, while 37 deputies voted with a white paper, and 4 papers were considered cancelled.
To win the elections, in the first round of the session, it is necessary to obtain 86 votes from the total members of Parliament, while half +1, or 65 votes, is sufficient in the second round of the session.
-On November 28, 2024, the Speaker of the House of Representatives set January 9 to hold a session to elect the President of the Republic.
Since the end of Michel Aoun’s term, Parliament has failed to elect a new president during 13 sessions over two years, the last of which was on June 14, 2023, which plunged the country into a presidential vacancy, the sixth in Lebanon’s modern history.
Several reports and statements – over the past few hours – indicated that the army commander will likely be the elected president, as he enjoys regional and international support, especially from the United States.
Since the beginning of the week, the American envoy to Beirut, Amos Hockstein, the Saudi envoy, Yazid bin Muhammad bin Fahd Al Farhan, and the French envoy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, have held separate meetings with various representatives and political figures in Lebanon.
The next president and the government he will form await major challenges, most notably reconstruction after the recent war in which Israel destroyed parts of the south and east of the country and the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut.
The president must also continue to implement the ceasefire agreement, which also includes adherence to Resolution 1701 issued by the UN Security Council in 2006, and the disarmament of all armed groups other than the “legitimate forces.”
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