Lebanese presidential election, 2008
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Fouad Seniora
(acting)
Future Movement
An indirect presidential election was held in the Parliament of Lebanon on 25 May 2008, after the term of incumbent President Émile Lahoud expired on 24 November 2007 at midnight. General Michel Sleiman, the Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, was elected as the consensus candidate after months of delays in holding the election due to an ongoing political dispute.
By convention, the presidency is usually attributed to a Maronite Christian personality. Under the article 49 of the Lebanese Constitution, a qualified majority of two-thirds of the members of the 128-seat Lebanese Parliament is required to elect the president. After the second round of election, the president is elected by a simple majority of 65 MPs out of 128.
The requested quorum was not formed in the first round (scheduled on 25 September 2007) since opposition MPs boycotted the parliamentary session. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri initially postponed the session to October 23, 2007, as previously suggested. The session was then further postponed to 12 November 2007, then to 21 November 2007 and finally to 23 November 2007, when the incumbent's term ends. However, on 23 November the session was further postponed until 30 November 2007, and then to 7 December 2007. On December 7 the reforms to the Constitution needed to elect consensus candidate General Michel Sleiman had not been finished yet and the vote was postponed again to 11 December 2007. On that date, it was postponed to 17 December 2007, and then again to 22 December 2007 and to 29 December 2007. On 28 December, it was again delayed to 12 January 2008; on 11 January it was again delayed to 21 January 2008, and then, on 20 January, it was delayed to 11 February 2008. On 9 February, it was again delayed to 26 February 2008, and on 25 February 2008 again delayed until 11 March 2008, then on 9 March 2008 delayed until 25 March 2008. It was then delayed on 24 March 2008 to 22 April 2008. On 22 April 2008, the session was postponed and on 26 April the new date was set to 13 May 2008. Parliament postponed a vote on a new Lebanese president for the 19th time, delaying the session to June 10, 2008. After the Doha Agreement was decided upon on 21 May 2008, a session to elect the president was called on 22 May 2008 to occur on 25 May 2008. On this date, Michel Sleiman was finally elected.
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