Lebanese lawmakers are theoretically meant to elect a new president with a second round of voting on April 30, but the two key blocs led by Hezbollah and the pro-Western MP Saad Hariri cannot agree on a consensus candidate.

Under Lebanon’s complex, confessional-based political system, in which top political posts are reserved for members of specific sects, the presidency is traditionally the preserve of Maronite Christians. So far, no figure from among the country’s Maronite Christian community has emerged with enough support among Lebanon’s fractious political parties to win a majority vote in parliament, meaning that many MPs may stay away from the second round of the sessions to select a new head of state.

Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian partners in the March 8 bloc want former army commander Michel Aoun to announce his candidacy. However the Hezbollah ally said he will only run if he has the race sewn up.

Hezbollah is trying to persuade Hariri, the head of the rival March 14 configuration, to back Aoun but so far Hariri’s bloc is sticking to its preferred candidate, the supposedly anti-Hezbollah Samir Geagea. While the head of the Lebanese Forces Party has long been outspoken against the Iranian-backed terror organization, of late Geagea has indicated he would not weaken Hezbollah if elected president.

In the first vote, Geagea garnered 48 votes in the 128-seat parliament, but that was deemed ineligible when the March 8 group walked out of the legislature, leaving the session inquorate.

[Photo: March 14 leader Saad Hariri. Credit: U.S. State Department / Wiki Commons]