Beirut, Lebanon - Lebanon's parliament has failed to elect a new president, in what is set to be a prolonged saga closely linked to Syria's upcoming election in June, political analysts say.
The parliamentary session began at noon on Wednesday. No candidate succeeded in getting the minimum 86 votes, or a two-thirds majority, needed to win the presidency.
All the MPs filed out after the ballots were counted, preventing a quorum for a second round of voting. According to the Lebanese constitution, a candidate needs only 51 per cent of votes in the second round to win the presidency. The next session to elect a president will be held on April 30.
The election was the first opportunity to produce a president without the influence of Syrian authorities, since Syria ended its nearly 30-year military presence in Lebanon in 2005.
But Wednesday's vote was not a significant milestone, as suggested by Mario Abou Zeid, an analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center, a policy research institute in downtown Beirut.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/04/lebanon-nominate-president-201442365922519100.html