Lebanon slid deeper into crisis on Wednesday when Hezbollah and its allies thwarted a bid by their rivals to elect a top IMF official as president, sharpening sectarian tensions and underlining the dim hopes for reviving the crumbling state.
Four years since Lebanon slid into a financial meltdown that marks its worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war, parliament failed for a 12th time to elect someone to fill the post reserved for a Maronite Christian under the country's sectarian system.
Lawmakers from the Iran-backed armed Shiite group Hezbollah and allies including the Shiite Amal Movement withdrew from the session to obstruct a bid by the main Christian parties to elect IMF official Jihad Azour, Reuters said.
The standoff has opened up a sectarian faultline, with one of Hezbollah's main Christian allies - Jebran Bassil - lining up behind the bid to elect Azour, alongside anti-Hezbollah Christian factions.
Azour, the IMF's Middle East Director and an ex-finance minister, won the support of 59 of parliament's 128 lawmakers in an initial vote, short of the two-thirds needed to win in the first round. Sleiman Franjieh, backed by Hezbollah and its allies, got 51 votes.
Eighteen lawmakers cast blank ballots, protest votes or voted for minority candidates.
Hezbollah and its allies then withdrew, denying the two-thirds quorum required for a second round of voting in which a candidate can win with the support of 65 lawmakers.
It leaves Lebanon with no immediate prospect of filling the presidency, which has been vacant since the term of the Hezbollah-allied President Michel Aoun ended in October.
Hezbollah, which says it is exercising its constitutional rights, is backing its close Christian ally Franjieh, a friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who strongly supports Hezbollah's right to possess weapons.
Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States, has unleashed fierce rhetoric in their campaign against Azour, describing him as a candidate of confrontation.
Lebanon's Shiite Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan dialed up the attacks on Sunday against Azour without naming him, accusing him of being backed by Israel and saying "a president with an American stamp will not be allowed".
Azour, 57, has said he wants to build national unity and implement reforms in a country mired in its deepest crisis since its 1975-90 civil war.
Azour, who served as finance minister from 2005 to 2008, is also backed by the majority of Druze legislators and some Sunni Muslims, while Shiite members of parliament have overwhelmingly backed Franjieh.
The new president’s most pressing task will be to get this nation of 6 million people, including more than 1 million Syrian refugees, out of an unprecedented economic crisis that began in October 2019. The meltdown is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s political class that has ruled Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war ended.
Clinching a bailout deal with the IMF — Azour’s current employer — is seen as key to Lebanon's recovery. Azour took a leave of absence from his post as regional director for the organization upon announcing his candidacy.
