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Lebanon PM warns against delay in electing new president

02 May 2014 19:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Lebanon's Prime Minister Tammam Salam warned Friday that if the parliament fails to elect a new president for the country within the constitutional dates, "there will be new suffering that no one wishes for", APA reports quoting Xinhua

Salam stressed at a gathering of Lebanese diplomats at the Grand Serail that in light of the current indicators it seems that a new president will not be elected on time, and he called for keeping the elections away from "external interference."

He said "we are facing a difficult stage and a challenge in electing a new head of state. Until this moment, there are no indicators that a new president will be elected on time."

But the PM said that "if a new president is elected, Lebanon will witness progress," warning of the consequences of vacuum in the president's post.

He said "Lebanon witnessed constitutional vacuum before and we paid dearly for that. We hope this experience would not be repeated."

The parliament failed to elect a new president on two occasions, and a new date has been set for May 7 to elect a new president.

Suleiman's term expires on May 2. According to the constitution, a new president should be elected before two months of the end of tenure of the incumbent president.

The parliament failed on April 23 to elect a new president in the first round of voting as the winner should obtain two thirds of the parliament votes.

The parliament is constituted of 128 MPs and two thirds means that the new president should get 86 votes in the first round.

But in the second and further rounds of voting, the required quorum is two thirds of the parliament, and the winner could be elected with a simple majority.