MP Fouad Makhzoumi ( L) is shown inside the Lebanese parliament , next to MP Najat Saliba (C) and MP Melhem Khalaf (second right and MP Waddah Sadek ( R) . Khalaf refused to leave the parliament until a president is elected. Hezbollah and its ally Speaker Nabih Berri were the main obstacle in the election of a president
MP Melhem Khalaf left the parliament carrying his bags after staying in parliament for 721 days.
Khalaf has been on a sit-in inside the parliament since the presidency became vacant following the end of former President Michel Aoun’s term.
This comes after Joseph Aoun was elected President of the Republic. He received 99 votes out of 128 member parliament in the second round of the presidential election session on Thursday. He was the only candidate and according to article 49 of the constitution he needed a two-third majority to win .
Dr Melhem Emile Khalaf is a prominent Lebanese lawyer, politician and human rights activist. He is currently a member of the Lebanese parliament since 2022, as part of the Forces of Change parliamentary bloc, and was president of the Beirut Bar Association between 2019 and 2021.
The United Nations General Assembly elected Dr Khalaf in 2015 as a member of the International Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva, and in 2017, he was elected vice-president of this committee.