Samir Geagea may have won the most votes, but he has little chance of victory
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Walid Jumblatt’s Democratic Gathering is reassembled, the March 14 (M14) coalition stands together as one unified alliance, and the March 8 (M8) coalition isn’t sparing any effort to stop M14 from winning. Welcome back to 2009. With just 32 days until Michel Sleiman’s term as President comes to an end on May 25, Lebanon’s politicians today voted on a potential successor. Unsurprisingly, no one won, but picking apart the backroom dealings that led to the vote appears to show all sides are positioning themselves for future rounds of voting. Firstly, here are the results: Round I White/Blank Ballots: 52 Votes Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea: 48 Votes Progressive Socialist Party MP Henri Helou: 16 Votes Kataeb Party leader Amine Gemayel: 1 Vote Canceled: 7 Votes (For Tarek and Dany Chamoun, Rachid Karami, Elias Zayek, Jihane Frangieh) Four MPs did not attend (Saad Hariri, Khaled Daher, Elie Aoun, Okab Sakr) March 14’s Strategy
