Lebanon Delays Presidential Election

[NaDiNe]

Lebanon Delays Presidential Election
Lebanese Parliament Fails to Muster Quorum to Elect a President
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, left, meets with Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, head of Lebanon's Maronite Church, right, at the patriarchal seat, in Bikirki northeast of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday Sept. 24, 2007. Berri on Monday, met with Sfeir, the influential spiritual head of the Maronite Catholic minority from which a president must hail under Lebanon's sectarian-based political system. Tuesday's parliamentary session, the first in the process to elect a president to replace Emile Lahoud by Nov. 24, was not expected to yield any results because the opposition, which is led by the militant Hezbollah group, was expected to boycott, thus denying the necessary two-thirds quorum for the first session. (AP Photo)
The Associated Press
By SAM F. GHATTAS Associated Press Writer
BEIRUT, Lebanon Sep 25, 2007 (AP)
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Lebanon's parliament on Tuesday put off a session to elect a new president until next month after the legislature failed to muster enough lawmakers because of a Hezbollah-led opposition boycott.

The announcement was made by a parliamentary official in the chamber after the bell rang three times to call the lawmakers into session. Lawmakers from the pro-government majority were in the chamber for 30 minutes, but many opposition members, who gathered in the building, stayed in the hallways.
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The gathering in parliament was held under tight security after last week's assassination of a legislator from the majority.

The postponement had been expected after the opposition, led by Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah, vowed to boycott the session to block the U.S.-supported majority from electing a president from their own ranks.

Mohammed Kabbani, a member of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, said there were more than 65 lawmakers, a simple majority, but less than 85 the necessary two-thirds quorum in attendance when the announcement was made.

Instead of electing a president Tuesday, the gathering turned into one of consultation. Opposition-aligned parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, met with Saad Hariri, the leader of the largest bloc.

Tuesday's security dragnet by several thousand soldiers and policemen was aimed at allowing anti-Syrian lawmakers from the parliamentary majority to move safely from a nearby heavily guarded hotel where they had taken refuge fearing assassination.

Fears of another attack were high after the slaying last week of pro-government lawmaker Antoine Ghanem. It fueled accusations by government supporters that Syria is targeting members of the ruling coalition, a claim denied by Damascus.

Lawmakers began arriving Tuesday morning in vehicles with dark-tinted windows under heavy guard, with at least one policeman sitting inside. Some members of the majority wore white and red scarves on their shoulders, a symbol of the 2005 campaign of protests that drove Syrian forces out of Lebanon in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

FROM ABC NEWS