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Lebanese parliament speaker postpones presidential election session

BEIRUT, Jan 19 (KUNA) -- Speaker of Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri postponed Thursday's session designated for electing a president due to lack of constitutional quorum, without setting a date for an upcoming session.
Attending the session were 111 representatives out of 128 as the first round of the session ended without any candidate achieving the required minimum of 86 votes and the second round did not meet the required quorum.
In this round candidate Michel Mouawad won 34 votes followed by Esam Khalifa with seven votes, and two votes for former minister Ziad Baroud, 37 ballots were left blank, and 29 were annulled as some 14 ballots had the words "New Lebanon" written on.
This the 11th session since September 2022, held to elect a new president for the country. President Michel Oun's presidency ended on the 31st of October, shoving the country into presidential vacancy. (end) ayb.aai