The quorum was broken after the Hezbollah-led bloc withdrew after the first round of voting.
The Lebanese parliament has failed – for the twelfth time – to elect a president and break a political deadlock that has gripped the country for months.
Lawmakers held a session on Wednesday to choose a replacement for former President Michel Aoun, whose term expired last October, but disagreements prevented them from meeting the required thresholds.
The main contest was between Jihad Azour, former finance minister and senior official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Sleiman Frangieh, leader of the Marada party whose family has a long history in Lebanese politics.
The Lebanese parliament needs 86 of a possible maximum of 128 lawmakers, or two-thirds, to elect a new leader in the first round of voting.
Azour, who is backed by the opposition to Iranian-backed Hezbollah, was ahead of his opponent in the first round by 59 votes to Frangieh’s 51, but failed to secure the required majority.
Eighteen lawmakers cast blank or protest votes or voted for minority candidates.
The bloc led by the powerful Hezbollah withdrew after the first round, breaking the quorum and preventing a second round of voting, where candidates needed only a 65-vote majority to secure the presidency.
Lebanon has a complex confessional political system based on the National Pact, an unwritten pact between the country’s political blocs that was first agreed in 1943 to establish faith-based representation and power-sharing.
According to the pact, the president and army commander must be Maronite Christians, while the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament must be a Shia Muslim.
The positions of Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Deputy Prime Minister are held by Greek Orthodox Christians, and the Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff is always Druze.
The members of parliament themselves are divided according to a quota system, which requires a 6:5 ratio between Christians, Muslims and Druze.
Shia MPs have largely supported Frangieh, who is Hezbollah’s preferred candidate, while Azour is backed by the majority of Druze legislators.
If elected, the new president will have to navigate a major economic crisis that began in 2019, along with a political system that has long suffered from corruption and mismanagement.
Some have argued for a bailout deal with the IMF as a key part of Lebanon’s economic recovery, something that could benefit Azour as he takes over the position of regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at the organization until he took leave last week to continue his candidacy.