Lebanon failed to elect a president in accordance with the provisions and deadlines specified in the constitution. Lebanon chose to have a presidential vacuum, as a kind of nihilism. Ironically, Lebanon chose the vacuum under the heading of the “national pact,” which is the unwritten agreement laying down the foundation of the country's confessional system. It’s as if having a vacuum is the fate of this small country, which in the absence of national consensus has been turned into a land of conflicts among major regional powers.

The members of parliament from the March 8 coalition who boycotted the electoral sessions and sabotaged the election did so by claiming their adherence to the national pact, whereby the sects must agree on a certain issue. In other words, electing a president is governed by the sects reaching an agreement, which is in fact the sects’ leaders striking a deal. Here, it must be noted that the blocs' representative nature and their leaders are already in crisis because they are themselves the product of an unfair electoral law that violates the national pact. It is worth mentioning that this law does not represent the sects fairly, especially the Christian sect, and does not take into account the 50-50 Christian-Muslim rule, which is a pillar of the national pact.

It is true that the national pact is the base upon which stands the social contract, representing the fundamental agreement among Lebanon’s components. And this is the case of all pluralist countries. But it is also true that the first embodiment of this pact is to uphold the constitution’s clauses and mechanisms to resolve internal differences, to keep institutions functioning and to prevent a power vacuum. From this angle, not holding the election is in itself a violation of the pact, not vice versa.

There is no doubt that the constitution and the Taif Agreement have many shortcomings, as revealed by the experience of recent years. Furthermore, the government under Syrian tutelage from 1990-2005 didn’t obey the provisions of the constitution nor the bases of the national pact, and imposed weak ruling mechanisms, such as the troika system and electoral laws aimed at consecrating Syria’s tutelage.