Elias Sarkis

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Elias Sarkis

Elias Sarkis (20 July 1924 - 27 June 1985) (Arabic: إلياس سركيس) was President of Lebanon from 1976 to 1982.

Born in Shabbaniah, Sarkis graduated with a Law degree from Saint Joseph University in 1948. After joining the judicial corps in 1953, he became a judge with the Accounting Department. During the regime of President Fuad Chehab, he was appointed Judicial Manager at the presidential palace in Baabda, and in 1962 he became General Manager for Presidential Matters. Following the Intrabank Crisis of 1968, Sarkis was appointed Governor of the Bank of Lebanon.

Sarkis contested the presidential election of 1970 as Chehab's protégé and was expected to win, but owing to a last-minute change of mind by several National Assembly members aligned to Kamal Jumblatt, he was defeated by Suleiman Frangieh by a single vote. He was, however, elected President on 8 May 1976, while the Lebanese Civil War was raging. With Syrian forces occupying two thirds of the country and private militias much of the rest, his power was limited. Just before the end of his presidency in 1982, Israel invaded southern Lebanon and advanced to the outskirts of Beirut.

Sarkis was to be succeeded by Bachir Gemayel, who was elected President on 21 August 1982, but he was assassinated nine days before he was due to take office. Amine Gemayel, Bachir's brother, was subsequently elected in his stead, and Sarkis handed the presidency over to him on 23 September.

Sarkis died in Switzerland in 1985, at the age of 61. He never married.