The Parliament held the tenth session for electing a president this Thursday morning. A total of 109 MPs voted during the session, with the votes distributed as follows: Michel Moawad received 38 votes, 37 were blank ballots, Issam Khalifa got 8 votes, "Lebanon Al-Jadid" received 6 votes, Ziad Baroud got 2, "Al-Mithaq" received 9 votes, Salah Hnein got 2, "Al-Tawafuq" received 2, and there were 3 invalid ballots. Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned the session after the first round without scheduling the next session.
Prior to the session, MP Bilal Abdullah noted that "it seems that some prefer dialogue outside rather than inside, and the withdrawal from sessions is a democratic right." MP Qassem Hashem indicated that "there are communications between some blocs and political forces, and our system's structure requires continuous dialogue. What is needed today is a comprehensive national discussion, and the name of the army commander has not been put forward for discussion."
MP Ibrahim Moussawi affirmed that "we do not impose a candidate on others, and we should move towards dialogue to agree on a specific name." MP Michel Daher expressed a wish to "conclude this matter and elect Joseph Aoun, and apologized to the Maronite community for the absence of prominent leaders for the presidency."
Additionally, MP Adib Abdallah stated that "we have a sovereign, reformist, clear, and consistent candidate, and we are against the disruption of sessions, while the other party has only blank and invalid votes." MP Alain Aoun commented that "we must head towards dialogue because there is no other solution, and there is a complete failure expressed in the ballots."
