Two candidates emerge from Lebanon deadlock
Latest update : 2008-02-14
Lebanon's presidential election was delayed again as rival political factions failed to agree on a new president. Leading candidates today are Michel Edde and Robert Ghanem.
day on Thursday gripped by anxiety about the failure so far of
rival political camps and a slew of foreign mediators to clinch
agreement on a new president and avert possible violence.
headlined the An-Nahar daily, which backs the anti-Syrian ruling
coalition headed by Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri.
Other newspapers were just as bleak about the prospects of
finding a solution ahead of a parliamentary vote on Friday, the
last day of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's term.
put off four times. If the assembly again fails to meet, a
constitutional abyss would yawn before Lebanon, already mired in
its worst political crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.
held tomorrow," said opposition politician Michel al-Murr,
describing the situation as very complex.
between fractious Lebanese politicians since Sunday, and his
Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos visited Christian
opposition leader and presidential candidate Michel Aoun.
opposition and the Western-backed majority later in the day.
on Wednesday night in another sign of international concern
about a deadlock that could further destabilise Lebanon.
parliamentary session. There was no military parade or other
events to mark the 64th anniversary of Lebanon's independence.
want to despair of the nation and the state that is about to
become a memory," said an editorial in the pro-opposition
As-safir daily.
without prior agreement on a candidate, who must be a Maronite
Christian under Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system.
opposition says the vote requires two thirds of the MPs.
take unspecified measures to guarantee Lebanon's unity. These
could include handing power to the army, rather than to the
existing government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
legitimacy when all its Shi'ite ministers resigned last year.
automatically take over presidential powers until a new head of
state can be elected. Some of its members favour using their
majority to pick a president in the absence of a deal.
Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc.
will take its rolling measures in response to those of the other
side," he told reporters after meeting the president, without
revealing the well-armed Shi'ite group's plans.
Date created : 2007-11-27