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AMMAN, JORDAN —Observers are warning of a power vacuum in Lebanon after President Michel Aoun left the presidential palace on Sunday, October 30, a day before completing his term in office, with no replacement.
After multiple voting sessions, Lebanon's parliament still has not elected a president. It's a post elected by lawmakers, not by popular vote, and held by a Maronite Christian. Former President Michel Aoun sent a letter to parliament 24 hours before his term ended on October 31st calling on Prime Minister Najib Mikati to resign and asking lawmakers to withdraw their confidence in his government. Aoun said the government lacked legitimacy and should not assume the duties of the presidency.
But several lawmakers argue that the Lebanese constitution gives the government, even a caretaker one, the right to run the country, if there is a presidential vacuum. They argue that a president must be elected, not discussions held on the government.
Lebanese analyst Dania Koleilat Khatib, with Stanford University's Hoover Institute, told VOA that Aoun's last act appears out of spite because he wanted his son-in-law Gebran Bassil, who is reviled by many, to take over the presidency.
"It is dire. What Aoun did just before he left, he signed the decree that the government is resigning,' said Khatib. "To add oil to the fire. To make sure to say: OK, you are not legitimate, there is a vacuum. To push for his son-in-law Gebran Bassil to be president. Not one wants the son-law-internally, no one wants the son-in-law internationally. Even his allies don't want him. It's not only the fact that it's a caretaker (government). There is no solution on anything. There is no plan, there is no economic, political will to go do the reforms. This is why the presidential elections are very important to bring a strong president."
Khatib said Lebanon needs a president and prime minister who can work together.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Barbara Leaf said the Biden administration is pressing urgently for government formation in Lebanon, providing support to the most vulnerable and asking that International Monetary Fund assistance be based on critical reforms. She told an audience recently at the Washington-based Wilson Center she can "see a scenario where there is disintegration, that [would be] the worst, where there's just an unravelling,"
"Lebanon urgently needs a president, and just behind that a prime minister who will take up with the president in forming a fully empowered cabinet that will get to work on the decisions, including key reforms that underwrite the IMF loan, and the perspective World Bank loans for the energy deals", Leaf said. "Nothing we or any other foreign partner can do can take the place of what Lebanon's own political leaders have failed to do to date: form a government and get to the urgent task of pulling Lebanon back from the brink."
Lebanon's local currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value over the past three years. People cannot access funds in their bank accounts and continue to suffer from hyperinflation, rampant impoverishment, insecurity, unemployment, and shortages of medicine, electricity, fuel and food.