by Joseph Haboush| The Daily Star

BEIRUT: As lawmakers prepare to head to Parliament to try to elect a president Wednesday, many Lebanese say they are not optimistic about the 45th attempt to end the presidential vacuum, now in its third year. “Let them first take the trash off the streets before electing a president,” 18-year-old Anaan Shab told The Daily Star from the center of Hamra. Amira Shatila, Shab’s co-worker in Hamra, echoed his comments, telling The Daily Star “nothing will change Wednesday and no president will be elected.”

A Parliament session has been scheduled and the 128 members are called on to attend and vote for the candidate they deem best to fill the vacant seat. At least 86 MPs are required to reach quorum. By law, a two-thirds majority must vote for one candidate if the first ballot at the session is to produce a president-elect. In a second poll, 65 votes – half plus one majority – would secure the election of the winning candidate.

Not all shared Shab’s pessimism, however. “There is a possibility that we will have a president Wednesday,” 62-year-old Ibrahim Ghaddar told The Daily Star as he walked down Hamra’s main street. When asked if he had a particular candidate in mind, Ghaddar said, “Michel Aoun will become the president.”

Lawmakers have been at odds over who the next president should be since Michel Sleiman’s term ended in May 2014.

March 8 and March 14 parties have disagreed, both internally and with each other, over the successor.

Lebanese Forces, Hezbollah, and the Free Patriotic Movement have called for the swift election of former Army General Michel Aoun, while Future Movement, MP Walid Jumblatt and Speaker Nabih Berri have expressed support for Marada Movement head Sleiman Frangieh.

Both Aoun and Frangieh are members of the March 8 camp.

Walking home from school with his friends in the predominantly Christian area of Ashrafieh, 17-year-old Hisham chuckled and said, “Are you kidding me? For sure, nothing will change and then [politicians] will say that the next electoral session will be successful in electing a president.”

Nour Aboujaoude, 36, said she felt there was a sense of apathy among the Lebanese population.

“We have become used to not having a president and have now reached this low point economically and politically,” the private tutor said as she walked to her next student’s apartment.

As the Lebanese people wait to see the outcome of Wednesday’s session, Syrian refugees are also hoping for the election of a Lebanese president. Syrian national Salim Daas, who owns a mobile phone shop in Hamra, said that there should be an election, but he doubted the outcome.

“There is no peace of mind with the current situation in Lebanon. Safety? Yes, there is relative calm but economically there is no work and no money,” the 31-year-old Syrian said. In his third year in Lebanon, Daas called on Lebanese to “learn from the outbreak of war in Syria and elect a president soon because Lebanon is [our] second home.”

All eyes will be on the results of the upcoming session as some have become fed up with the current situation. “Election? I do not give a damn. Let them wait a bit longer and not elect anyone, they will become more respectable,” an elderly woman said in a sarcastic tone, without breaking step as she hurried down from Sassine Square.