BEIRUT, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - The presidential election in Lebanon has been postponed for the 13th time and is now scheduled for October 29, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported Thursday citing Parliament General Secretary Adnan Daher.
The latest attempt to elect a president failed Thursday due to the lack of quorum, as only 57 deputies out of 126 members of parliament were present at the session. The quorum requires the presence of no less than 86 deputies.
The office of the president of Lebanon has been vacant for the last six months. Differences in the parliament are behind the current impasse.
The legislation is almost evenly divided into pro-Western and pro-Syrian blocks, which makes a consensus on the candidacy to replace former President Michel Sleiman hard to achieve.
Under the Lebanese Constitution, only a Maronite Christian elected by the parliament is eligible to become president. The Maronite Church belongs to the Catholic Church, and its followers make up 25 percent of the country's population.
