Lebanese MPs fail to pick new president in first vote
BEIRUT - Lebanese parliamentarians failed to elect a new president in a first round of voting on Wednesday, with leading candidate Samir Geagea falling well short of the required two-thirds majority.
Parliament must choose a successor to President Michel Suleiman, whose six-year term ends in late May. But deep political divisions within the country and over the war in neighbouring Syria have hampered efforts to agree on a new president, who must be a Maronite Christian.
Geagea's failure to win sufficient votes had been widely expected and is likely to open up the race to other candidates in a process which politicians have warned could drag on for months. (Reuters)
