Lebanese parliament to elect new leader

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s parliament speaker on Tuesday summoned lawmakers for a session this week to elect the country’s next president, offering a hope of a political step forward.

Parliament is to convene Thursday, according to a memo from the speaker, Nabih Berri. Under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, the country’s 128-member parliament votes for a president, who must be a Maronite Christian.

The six-year term of incumbent President Michel Aoun — a retired military general and an ally of the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group who was elected in October 2016 — ends Oct. 31.

It is unclear whether legislators in a deeply divided parliament will be able to reach a quorum for the session, raising prospects of renewed political paralysis.

In recent months, no majority or consensus candidate has emerged for the post of Aoun’s successor.

Sleiman Frangieh of the Marada Party, an ally of Hezbollah who calls Syrian President Bashar Assad a “friend and brother,” has the backing of some key parties but hasn’t received the backing of a major Christian bloc.

The other announced candidates, Tracy Chamoun, the granddaughter of a former Lebanese president running on an anti-Hezbollah platform, businessman Ziad Hayek and writer and women’s advocate May Rihani have yet to receive any formal endorsements.

Hezbollah’s opponents are hoping to use their influence to ensure that Lebanon’s next president is not an ally of Hezbollah.