Speaker calls on Lebanese parliament to elect president on April 23

[World News]

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Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri called on Wednesday for parliament to elect a new president on April 23, in a race overshadowed by growing violence and political paralysis. President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ends in late May. Parliament must approve his successor with a two-thirds majority but political sources say the process is likely to be delayed, possibly for months, due to divisions in parliament over the Syrian war. Lebanon's National News Agency said Berri had called Cardinal Beshara al-Rai, the head of Lebanon's Maronite Christian Church, and informed him of his decision. Under Lebanon's political system, which seeks to guarantee representation for its various sects and religions, the president must be a Maronite Christian.

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