Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Monday that it was unacceptable for the presidential vacuum to last more than a year, hoping for a divine “interference” in the country’s blood-stained history.

“We continue to pray for the election of a president, for stability and for a comprehensive reconciliation,” al-Rahi said at the opening of the synod of Maronite Bishops in Bkirki.

“No one accepts for the presidential vacuum to last a year,” he said in his address to the bishops.

Al-Rahi warned that the vacuum at Baabda Palace is leading to the disintegration of constitutional institutions.

The country’s top Christian post has been vacant since President Michel Suleiman’s six-year tenure ended in May 2014. The rival MPs have been unable to elect a successor since then.

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