Crisis-hit Lebanese parliament fails to elect president

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s parliament has failed to elect a president, just weeks before incumbent President Michel Aoun’s six-year term comes to an end. Over half of the crisis-hit country’s legislators cast blank ballots and some lawmakers shuffled out of the assembly hall, breaking the quorum. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri did not set a new date for parliament to convene. With no consensus or majority candidate in the running, there have been fears of crippling political paralysis. The elections come at at time when Lebanon’s economic crisis has plunged three-quarters of its population into poverty, and reforms to reach an International Monetary Fund bailout have been slow.