Lebanese army chief Joseph Aoun was voted in as president in a second round of parliamentary voting Thursday, ending a more than two-year vacuum in the crisis-hit, war-battered country.
Lebanon's widely respected army chief Joseph Aoun was elected president in the second round of a parliamentary vote on Thursday in the 13th attempt by the legislature to elect a successor to former president Michel Aoun — no relation to the army commander — whose term ended in October 2022.
"The speaker announces that the president is Joseph Aoun," veteran parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri said, reporting that Aoun received 99 out of 128 votes after failing to get a required majority in a first round earlier in the day.
The election came a day after Suleiman Frangieh, a candidate backed by the Shiite group Hezbollah, withdrew from the race and declared his support for the military commander.
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