Beirut, Nabih Berry to lead Parliament for the seventh time
The Shiite representative elected in the first round, with the minimum number of votes required (65 out of 128 in total). Independent MPs expressing protest were unable to prevent the appointment. Within the Assembly, however, a shift in the balance of power emerges. The goal now is to elect the president of the Republic and the premier, avoiding institutional deadlock.
Beirut (AsiaNews) - Yesterday the "new protest" briefly crossed arms with the "old parliament", in the first meeting of the newly elected assembly resulting from the 15 May elections. A session during which the new legislative president was to be elected, as provided for by the Lebanese Constitution.
The entry of 13 new MPs, an expression of the popular uprising of October 2019, did not take place with fanfare, as it did not achieve the aim of toppling Nabih Berry, leader of the Shia Amal party, from his seat. However, the new MPs still managed to impose a 'climate' of contestation with respect to the procedures used by Berry himself in conducting the sessions, demanding and obtaining that in counting deliberately invalid ballots, these should still be read and not automatically classified and filed as invalid.
This new procedure in counting these void ballots is a child of the need for justice. A value that should permeate every institutional step, from the investigation into the catastrophic double explosion of 4 August 2020 at the port of Beirut to the protesters shot by the police outside Parliament, some of whom were hit in the eyes and lost their sight.
Speaking in concrete terms, the Lebanese Assembly re-elected Berry for a seventh consecutive term at the head of Parliament, thanks to the 65 votes obtained in the first ballot. The result of the vote was as follows: 65 votes for Berry, 23 blank ballots and 40 void ballots. Berry's election confirmed one of the peculiarities of Lebanese parliamentary life over the last thirty years: the end of the hegemony, at least on a virtual level, by the Shiite Hezbollah-Amal tandem, which has held the representation of the Shiite community since 1992.
After all, Berry, 84 years old, was the only 'viable' candidate to hold this office. It is well known that implicit or explicit threats have led several Shiite personalities in the country not to run for the 15 May legislative elections against Hezbollah, or to renounce them as a result of intimidation. At the same time, it is worth remembering that, according to Lebanese constitutional practice, the Speaker of the House belongs to the Shia community, the Head of State to the Christian Maronite community, and the Head of Government to the Sunni community.
Berry was confirmed in his role even though Hezbollah, and its allies, lost their majority in the legislative elections. The election of Amal's leader must be credited to Hezbollah, which has shown that it can still manoeuvre to gain a majority.
The MPs expressing the protests, as well as the parliamentary opposition represented by the Lebanese Forces and its allies, knew they could not remove Berry from his seat, but they nevertheless tried to prevent him from being elected in the first round with an absolute majority (65 votes out of 128), as required by the Constitution. From the final outcome, it is clear that they failed to do so and achieve their goals.
Compared to past results, however, Berry enjoyed a slim majority this year. It is worth mentioning here that in the 2018 elections he was elected with 98 votes. Moreover, this decline is not due to the forces of protest, but to an increasingly pronounced antagonism between Berry and the Christian MP Gebran Bassil, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, an ally of Hezbollah. Because of the dispute between the latter and Berry, described as a 'filibuster' (baltagi) by Bassil, Cpl MPs cast blank ballots at the polls (23 in total).
The 40 ballots cancelled in the counting process represent the votes of protest members who, in this way, expressed their opposition to Berry's re-election by writing slogans on the ballot papers.
Calculated by voice vote, the final score is also symbolic of a 'moving majority' that should mark the life of this legislature that has just taken office. Analysts and experts believe that Berry will preside over a parliament that is currently very fragmented. But it is still too early to tell whether this fragmentation will lead to a dead end, as is feared by David Hale, former US ambassador to Lebanon and former undersecretary of state for political affairs, who has now moved into the private sector.
After his victorious re-election, Berry said that he intends to ignore the 'criticism' of his opponents, assuring that he will extend his hand to all MPs, especially those on Bassil's 'blank ballots'. Because the common goal, he added, is to jointly favour the appointment of a prime minister and the election of a new president of the Republic, avoiding any form of institutional vacancy.
At the same time, the Assembly also elected a vice-president in the person of former minister Elias Bou Saab (the bloc referring to President Aoun), also having obtained 65 votes but on the second ballot. Both votes were completed with the election of two secretaries and three rapporteurs to form the parliamentary bureau. The elected officials then went to the presidential palace, as required by protocol.
Prior to the parliamentary session, independent MPs had joined relatives of the victims of the August 2020 Beirut port explosion on the ledge overlooking the ocean of twisted wreckage. Following this, they led a symbolic march to Parliament, passing through some emblematic places such as Martyrs' Square and Samir Kassir, the beating heart of the protest.
.png)
09/08/2020 15:33
