The Lebanese parliament convened yesterday under tight security for a session aimed at electing a new president but amid total deadlock among lawmakers on choosing a consensus candidate.
The perimeter around the imposing parliament building in central Beirut was off-limits to traffic with elite troops and tanks deployed in the area.
Checkpoints were also set up throughout the city creating traffic jams, and many businesses were shut.
PHOTO: AFP
Lawmakers from the ruling Western-backed majority, several of whom have taken refuge in a nearby luxury hotel, were to be escorted to the parliament building under strict security in light of the latest killing last week of one of their number in a car bombing.
Although parliament speaker Nabih Berri has summoned rival factions to convene, it was clear that yesterday's session would not lead to a actual vote but would allow for consultations among the rival parties.
Newspapers described the session -- the first in nearly a year -- as a key moment that could help to end a long-running political crisis that has paralyzed the country and threatened its stability.
"The heart of Beirut trembles" screamed the opposition Al-Akhbar newspaper, while As-Safir, another opposition daily, blared: "The non-session will proceed calmly today: will the presidential bells toll anytime soon?"
While acknowledging that a vote would not take place yesterday, Berri has voiced optimism that Lebanon's divided parties would strike a compromise by the deadline in two months when incumbent President Emile Lahoud's term ends.
"By Nov. 24, there will be a president of the republic who will have the approval of all the Lebanese," Berri told reporters on Monday.
The session comes six days after member of parliament Antoine Ghanem was killed by a car bomb in an attack that the ruling majority blamed on Damascus.
Ghanem was the eighth anti-Syrian politician to be assassinated since the 2005 murder of five-time prime minister Rafiq Hariri, a killing that led to protests and forced Syria to end 29 years of military domination in Lebanon.
A spokesperson for Berri's office said the session would adjourn to Oct. 23.
Saad Hariri of the anti-Syrian majority said he hoped the session would help "open the door for solution, dialogue and discussions in order to save Lebanon and the Lebanese from internal and regional dangers looming on the horizon."
Lawmakers have between Monday and Nov. 24 to choose a candidate to replace Lahoud, whose six-year term was controversially extended by three years in 2004 in a Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment.
A two-thirds majority is required for a candidate to be elected by parliament in the first round of voting. In the event of a second round a simple majority suffices.
Opposition parties -- Hezbollah, Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement of Michel Aoun -- said some of their MPs would be in the parliament building yesterday, but it was not clear whether they would attend the session itself.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's government has been paralyzed since pro-Syrian opposition forces, led by the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, withdrew their six ministers from his Cabinet in November last year.
Mediation by a host of foreign envoys has failed to clinch an agreement between the rival camps on a presidential candidate.
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