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Lebanon PM urges prompt election of new president

Xinhua, April 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam on Tuesday urged the bickering political parties to elect a new president without further delay, warning that they would fail in governing the country without consensus.

At his opening speech of an education conference in Beirut, Salam said "Lebanon is the only thing we've got. Putting it in danger is an unforgivable crime such as the crime of the presidential vacuum," according to a statement by his media office.

He added that "no political party is capable of changing the circumstances in the region. No single side would be able to succeed alone in deciding the fate of the country. No side would be able to manage our internal affairs away from consensus."

Salam also urged all parties to speed up the election of a president to regulate the work of the state institutions and normalize the country's constitutional life.

Lebanon has been without a President since former President Michel Suleiman's tenure ended on May 25, last year.

Differences between the March 8 and 14 alliances over a compromise candidate have caused the vacuum at Baabda Palace, and the parliament has failed on 21 consecutive times to convene to elect a new president because of the lack of the constitutionally required quorum.

According to the constitution the president should be elected by two thirds of the parliament's 128 lawmakers in the first round, and by a simple majority in the further rounds of voting.

The power sharing pact states that the president should be a Christian Maronite, the speaker a Muslim Shiite and the premier a Muslim Sunni. Endit