Lebanon vote to be delayed until next week

BEIRUT - Lebanon's presidential election has been postponed until the end of next week, a senior political source said on Friday, announcing the 11th delay to a vote first due to have been held more than three months ago.

The vote had been set for Saturday. While rival leaders have agreed on army chief General Michel Suleiman as a consensus candidate for the presidency, they are still wrangling over how to share power once he takes office.

"Complications in regional and international negotiations and the severing of domestic talks contributed to the delay of tomorrow's session until the end of next week," the source told Reuters.

The vote cannot take place without a two-thirds quorum in parliament, which can only be secured by a deal between the anti-Syrian ruling coalition and the Damascus-backed opposition.

The Hezbollah-led opposition wants assurances it will have veto power in the new cabinet, but the majority coalition wants Suleiman elected first and says the government's formation falls within the new president's power.

Political sources said no progress was made in reconciling the rival camps this week. Both sides have increased the rhetoric, blaming each other for obstructing the election of Suleiman.

The presidency has been vacant since the term of pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud ended on November 23, and there are fears the prolonged vacuum could further destabilise Lebanon, already entrenched in its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

GOVERNMENT MEASURES

The Western-backed government took measures it says are to facilitate the election of Suleiman, a 59-year-old Maronite Christian who has been army commander since 1998.

Earlier this week it drafted a law to amend the constitution to allow a senior public servant to be president and on Thursday 13 parliamentarians from the ruling majority signed a petition in favour of the amendment.

Both measures were rejected by the opposition, which says no amendment is needed. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key opposition leader, also refused to accept the draft law from a government he considers illegitimate ever since opposition ministers resigned last year.

Berri has said he will continue to call parliamentary sessions to try to elect a president.

The crisis has caused deep rifts among the Christian community. The presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian under Lebanon's power-sharing sectarian system.

France, Lebanon's former colonial power, has led intensive mediation efforts to try and secure a deal between the feuding sides, but in recent days the mediation seems to have lost some momentum.

Suleiman, who was appointed as army chief when Syria still dominated Lebanon, gained popularity during the army's 15-week onslaught against al Qaeda-inspired militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon earlier this year.

He is on good terms with Hezbollah, a powerful military-political group backed by Syria and Iran.