Lebanese president urges politicians to name his successor in his farewell speech
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Lebanon's president has called for the country's squabbling politicians to choose a successor to his post as he steps down.
President Michel Suleiman spoke Saturday during a farewell speech to end his six-year term. Lebanese politicians haven't been able to agree on a successor to Suleiman, whose term ends Sunday.
The power vacuum comes as Lebanon struggles to deal with the fallout from the civil war in neighboring Syria.
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Lebanon's national unity government will administer the country while a new president is selected.
The absence of a president is chiefly a setback for Lebanon's Christian community, whose influence has diminished since the country's 1975-90 war.
In Lebanon's power-sharing system, the president must be Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim.