Though Lebanon’s presidency is mostly symbolic, it has a few important powers, like approving prime ministers and cabinets. In a country still haunted by the memory of civil war, symbolism is important too: how the head of state is chosen says much about the balance of power in Lebanon’s factious politics.

As the country endured economic crisis and a devastating war, lawmakers failed 12 times to pick a head of state. They have now settled on Joseph Aoun, the leader of the military.

Lebanese army commander elected president weeks after a tenuous cease-fire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

The election of army commander Gen. Joseph Aoun garnered rare consensus among the Lebanese, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia in the first presidential election for Lebanon following the fall of the Assad regime.

A devastating economic crisis, a political power vacuum, massive corruption and most recently the war between Hezbollah and Israel: For a long time, things were not looking good for Lebanon. But, after two years without a president,

Lebanon’s parliament is set to vote to elect a president to fill a more than an two-year-long presidential vacuum

Lebanon’s parliament is set to convene Thursday to attempt to elect a head of state for the 13th time during a presidential vacuum of over two years

Lebanon's parliament will try to elect a president on Thursday, with officials seeing better chances of success in a political landscape shaken by Israel's war with Hezbollah and the toppling of the group's ally Bashar al-Assad in neighbouring Syria.

Lebanon's Army chief General Joseph Aoun, attends a news conference to launch a Livelihood Support Program for the Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces (ISF) hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the U.

Despite pressure by the United States and others to elect a president in order to receive financial support, a consensus candidate has yet to emerge who can clearly end Lebanon’s political gridlock.