1st LD: Aoun elected Lebanese president, ending 2.5-year vacancy

The Lebanese parliament on Monday elected former army chief Michel Aoun as the country's 13th president, ending a vacancy that lasted almost two and a half years.

Aoun, a Christian former army chief, is allied with the Iran-backed Hezbollah party whose forces are fighting in Syria alongside forces of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The election of Aoun, 81, as president came after the surprise endorsement of his candidacy by Saad Hariri, a former prime minister now heading al-Mustaqbal Movement.

A fierce opponent of the Assad government in Syria, Hariri is the leader of a bloc that rivals Hezbollah and enjoys the support of Saudi Arabia.

Aoun is expected to nominate Hariri to return as prime minister, but with little consensus in the political landscape, the process of forming a government is likely to be long and arduous.

Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014, when former president Michel Suleiman's six-year term ended.

Since then, parliament had held 45 failed sessions to elect a successor, each time failing to make quorum.

According to the constitution, the president should be elected with two thirds of votes in the 128-seat parliament in the first round, and with a simple majority in the following rounds.

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