Lebanese Christian politician and founder of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) Michel Aoun (L) gestures as he is escorted by a bodyguard and an army soldier during a rally to show support for him and to mark the October 13 anniversary, near the presidential palace in Baabda, near Beirut, Lebanon October 11, 2015. Thousands of Lebanese rallied near the presidential palace on Sunday in a show of support for Christian politician Michel Aoun, pressing their demand for him to fill the vacant presidency. The rally was called to mark events in October 1990, near the end of the Lebanese civil war, when the Syrian army captured Baabda. Aoun - head of one of two rival administrations at the time - was forced out of the presidential palace and later into exile. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Lebanese Christian leader and founder of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) Michel Aoun (L) arrives to addresses his supporters during a rally to show support for him and to mark the October 13 anniversary, near the presidential palace in Baabda

Lebanese Foreign Minister and newly elected head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) Gibran Bassil (L) gestures while standing with supporters during a rally to show support for Christian politician and FPM founder Michel Aoun and to mark the October 13 anniversary, near the presidential palace in Baabda, near Beirut, Lebanon October 11, 2015

Supporters of Christian leader Michel Aoun hold Free Patriotic Movement and Lebanese flags and pictures of him during a rally near the empty presidential palace in the Beirut suburb of Baabda, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015. (AP Photo//Hassan Ammar) 

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thousands of Lebanese rallied at the presidential palace outside Beirut on Sunday in a show of support for Christian politician Michel Aoun, pressing their demand for him to fill the presidency vacant for over a year.

Waving the orange flag of Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), they packed streets in the Baabda district that houses the headquarters of the presidency.

The presidency is set aside for a Maronite Christian but has been unoccupied due to a political crisis stoked by regional conflicts including the war in neighboring Syria.

"The president of the republic shouldn't be just any person who fills the post, as some people want him to be," Aoun told the crowd as h

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