Lebanese Parliament to Elect Country's New President next Week

Lebanese Parliament will have another session, next Thursday, to elect the state's new president, Egypt's Al Qahera Al Ekhbaria reported.

Lebanon on Monday entered a season of institutional void, lacking a fully-empowered government and a president after the term ended on Sunday of the Christian Maronite president Michel Aoun.

Aoun had been president since 2016, when he was elected after over two years of an institutional void.

Aoun had signed a decree for the resignation of the current government under Sunni Muslim Najib Miqati.

However, this move did not have any concrete effect on the next government, which Aoun tasked Miqati himself with forming in recent months.

Lebanese political and religious leaders and their regional and international power brokers have not reached an agreement yet for a new "consensus" head of state.

The country's parliament speaker is the only top government role with full powers at the moment, held by Shia Muslim Nabih Berri, who will call in the coming days "national dialogue sessions" to speed up the naming of a president "of consensus".

At the same time, there are no signs of the overcoming of a political stalemate as concerns the formation of the next government.

Miqati remains the prime minster-designate in charge of dealing with urgent matters.