BEIRUT: Lebanon’s speaker Nabih Berri called on Tuesday for parliament to meet this week to elect a president to replace Michel Aoun whose term expires at the end of October.

“Berri called for a session to be held at 11 am on Thursday September 29, 2022 in order to elect a president,” a statement from his office said.

The session will mark the first attempt by lawmakers to elect a new head of state at a time when the country is in the grips of a financial crisis described by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times.

But it comes without any consensus on a replacement for Aoun amid a months-long political deadlock that has prevented the formation of a new government since the outgoing one’s mandate expired in May.

With no compromise in sight among Lebanon’s bitterly divided politicians, it may take several sessions of parliament before a president is finally named.

The post lay vacant for more than two years before Aoun was elected in 2016.

But with more than 80 per cent of the population living in poverty and the currency having lost more than 95 per cent of its value against the dollar since 2019, Lebanon can ill afford any delays.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s parliament on Monday approved the 2022 budget, one of the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund to action a bailout for the crisis-stricken country.

Lebanon and the IMF had reached a conditional agreement on a $3 billion loan in April to help the country tackle its economic crisis, but the global lender last week condemned the “very slow” progress Beirut has made towards implementing reforms. Lawmakers on Monday approved the budget with 63 votes in favour and 37 opposed, the state news agency NNA reported. — AFP