Lebanon marked its independence day yesterday gripped by anxiety about the failure so far of rival political camps and a slew of foreign mediators to clinch agreement on a new president and avert possible violence.
"Last day before zero hour: either a miracle or vacuum," headlined the An-Nahar daily, which backs the anti-Syrian ruling coalition headed by Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri.
Other newspapers were just as bleak about the prospects of finding a solution ahead of a parliamentary vote today, the last day of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's term.
The election, first slated for September 25, has already been put off four times. If the assembly again fails to meet, a constitutional abyss would yawn before Lebanon, already mired in its worst political crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.
"There are early indications that the session will not be held tomorrow," said opposition politician Michel al-Murr, describing the situation as very complex.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who has shuttled between fractious Lebanese politicians since Sunday, and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos visited Christian opposition leader and presidential candidate Michel Aoun. They were due to see other politicians from the pro-Syrian opposition and the Western-backed majority later in the day.
The Hezbollah-led opposition says it won't go to parliament without prior agreement on a candidate, who must be a Maronite Christian under Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system.
The ruling coalition holds only a slim majority and the opposition says the vote requires two thirds of the MPs.
If no president is elected, the outgoing Lahoud has vowed to take unspecified measures to guarantee Lebanon's unity. These could include handing power to the army, rather than to the existing government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
Lahoud and the opposition say Siniora's government lost its legitimacy when all its Shi'ite ministers resigned last year.
The majority bloc argues that Siniora's government would automatically take over presidential powers until a new head of state can be elected. Some of its members favor using their majority to pick a president in the absence of a deal.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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