Lebanon elects Joseph Aoun as president after two-year deadlock
Event date: January 9, 2025. Lebanon’s parliament has elected army commander Joseph Aoun as president, ending more than two years without a head of state.
The AP report says the vote came after 13 failed attempts to choose a successor to Michel Aoun, whose term ended in October 2022. The election fills one of Lebanon’s most stubborn political vacancies and gives the country a president at a moment of deep economic and security strain.
Joseph Aoun is not related to former president Michel Aoun. He was widely seen as the preferred candidate of the United States and Saudi Arabia, both of which are influential in Lebanon’s reconstruction and political future.
The vote followed weeks after a tenuous ceasefire ended a 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. That timing mattered because it combined a domestic constitutional breakthrough with a regional security pause that left Lebanon needing international assistance.
In the first round of voting, Joseph Aoun received 71 of 128 votes, short of the two-thirds majority required to win outright. In the second round, the AP report says he prevailed after lawmakers who had initially withheld support shifted their position.
Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc had previously backed Suleiman Frangieh, a Christian political figure with close ties to former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Frangieh withdrew on Wednesday and endorsed Joseph Aoun, clearing the way for the army commander’s victory.
The AP report says the election reflected the weakening of Hezbollah after its war with Israel and the fall of its ally Assad in Syria. It also came under heavy international pressure to end the vacuum and restore functioning institutions.
The presidency in Lebanon is limited under the country’s sectarian power-sharing system, but it remains central because the president appoints or removes the prime minister and cabinet. That makes the office crucial even when executive power is shared among religious communities.
Joseph Aoun’s first speech promised judicial reform, anti-corruption efforts and steps to consolidate the state’s right to monopolize weapons. That last phrase was widely understood as a reference to Hezbollah’s arsenal, and it signals the challenge ahead for any new administration.
He also pledged to control borders, strengthen the security services and discuss a defense policy that would allow the Lebanese state to remove Israeli forces from remaining occupied areas in the south. He said reconstruction of what the Israeli army destroyed would be a priority.
The election was greeted with celebration in parts of Lebanon, including fireworks, gunshots and sweets in the president’s hometown. But the AP report also makes clear that a presidency alone will not solve the country’s wider problems. Lebanon still faces the task of rebuilding institutions, managing sectarian tensions and securing foreign help.
The significance of the vote is that it ends a vacuum that had become part of Lebanon’s political identity. Whether Joseph Aoun can turn that opening into lasting reform is the next question.
