No winner in first round of Lebanese presidential vote

The Lebanese parliament has failed to elect a new president after the first round of voting. The leading candidate, Samir Geagea, failed to get the required two-thirds of the vote. The Lebanese constitution requires that the president be a Maronite Christian, but Geagea fell well short of the mark. Sunni Muslims get the prime minister’s office, and Shi’ites the parliamentary speaker. Geagea’s defeat opens up the field to a new crop of candidates, although it is possible that it will take several months for a winner to emerge. He had hoped to take over from President Michel Suleiman, whose six-year term concludes at the end of May, but Geagea’s failure had been widely predicted. He won 48 votes from the anti-Assad bloc, while 52 blank votes were cast on behalf of the Hezbollah-dominated bloc, which is pro-Syrian. A second round of voting will be held next Wednesday.