BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to postpone for the 22nd time an April 2 parliamentary session to elect a new president as activists plan a peaceful rally to protest the prolonged presidential vacuum.
Lebanese lawmakers have botched 21 attempts to elect a successor to former President Michel Sleiman after his term ended in May, over a lack of quorum, owing to the absence of an accord between the rival factions on a consensus candidate.
The Civil Society Dialogue Table, a group of non-governmental organizations, activists and key figures, planned an 11 a.m. sit-in at Riad Solh Square in Downtown Beirut to protest the 10-month-old presidential vacuum.
The Beirut Bar Association will participate in the protest with a statement made by the head of the Association George Jreij.
Lawmakers from MP Michel Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc, Hezbollah’s bloc and its March 8 allies, have thwarted a quorum since April 2014 by boycotting parliamentary sessions, demanding an agreement beforehand with their March 14 rivals over a consensus candidate.
The first election in May achieved quorum, but no candidate received enough votes.
The failure to pick a successor to Sleiman, whose six-year tenure came to an end May 25, has plunged the country into a presidential impasse that has paralyzed Parliament.
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