section_path: Presidency (2025–present)/Election
section_name: Election
paragraph_text: Election
  
  On 9 January 2025, Aoun was elected president in the second round of the electoral session. In his inaugural address, he vowed to fight the mafias, drug trafficking, interference in the justice system, corruption, poverty, and sectarianism. He also stated that he would promote economic, political, and judicial reform. He also said: "The Lebanese state – I repeat the Lebanese state – will get rid of the Israeli occupation ", while also vowing that he would work "to affirm the state's right to a monopoly on the carrying of arms".
  
  His election was criticized by some opposition members as unconstitutional who argued that the Lebanese constitution bars a sitting army commander from being elected president as stated in article 49 of the constitution, a ban that has been waived multiple times, which prompted some MPs to place a protest vote. However, a precedent was set in the election of Michel Suleiman in 2008 when a sitting army chief was elected president with a two thirds majority in Parliament, the number required to amend the constitution, despite no actual amendment of the constitution by Parliament similar to what happened with the 1998 election of Emile Lahoud.