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| Lebanon: Michel Aoun elected president, ending two-year stalemate | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Lebanon's parliament has elected Michel Aoun as president, ending a political stand-off that has left the post empty for more than two years. | Lebanon's parliament has elected Michel Aoun as president, ending a political stand-off that has left the post empty for more than two years. |
| The Maronite Christian former general secured 83 votes in the 128-seat chamber when MPs convened for their 46th attempt to choose a head of state. | |
| Mr Aoun was backed by the powerful Shia Islamist group, Hezbollah. | |
| His candidacy was blocked by the rival, Sunni-dominated Future Movement until a deal was struck earlier this month. | His candidacy was blocked by the rival, Sunni-dominated Future Movement until a deal was struck earlier this month. |
| It will reportedly see the Future Movement's leader, Saad Hariri, become prime minister. | It will reportedly see the Future Movement's leader, Saad Hariri, become prime minister. |
| The stalemate has paralysed Lebanon's government, which is also struggling to deal with deep divisions over the five-year civil war in neighbouring Syria and the arrival of more than one million refugees. | The stalemate has paralysed Lebanon's government, which is also struggling to deal with deep divisions over the five-year civil war in neighbouring Syria and the arrival of more than one million refugees. |
| Lebanon has been without a head of state since Michel Suleiman stepped down at the end of his term in May 2014. | |
| The country's complex power-sharing system stipulates that the president should always be a Maronite, the largest Christian denomination. The prime minister is meanwhile a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim. | |
| In the first round of voting on Monday, Mr Aoun failed to secure a two-thirds majority among the 127 MPs present. | |
| A second round of voting - in which he required a simple majority to win - saw 128 ballots cast, which meant a third round was required. | |
| The situation turned in the 81-year-old's favour on 20 October when Mr Hariri said he would support his candidacy in order to "protect Lebanon, protect the [political] system, protect the state and protect the Lebanese people". | |
| Mr Aoun, who leads the Free Patriotic Movement, rose to prominence during Lebanon's civil war as an anti-Syrian commander of the Christian-dominated Lebanese Army. | |
| In 1988, then-President Amin Gemayel appointed him head of an interim military government, just before his own presidential term expired without a successor having been elected. | |
| However, Muslim leaders refused to recognise Mr Aoun's administration and backed the existing Sunni-led government. | |
| Mr Aoun subsequently declared a "war of liberation" against Syrian forces in Lebanon. | |
| Although a new president was elected in November 1989, Mr Aoun did not step aside until Syrian-led forces drove him out of the presidential palace and into exile in France in October 1990. | |
| He returned to Lebanon only after Syrian troops withdrew in 2005 under international pressure following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Saad Hariri's father. | |
| Despite his life-long opposition to Syria's influence, Mr Aoun formed a surprise political alliance with its staunch ally, Hezbollah, in 2006. | |
| He also sided with Hezbollah in supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is a member of the heterodox Shia Alawite sect, in his attempts to put down a Sunni-dominated rebellion. | |
| The Saudi-backed Future Movement opposes Hezbollah's intervention in Syria as well as the group's military power inside Lebanon. |