Nabih Berri reelected as the speaker of the Lebanese Parliament
Jun 26, 2009
Beirut - As expected MP Nabih Berri was reelected as the speaker of The Lebanese parliament for the fifth term and Farid Makari was reelected as his deputy. What was not expected was the low number of votes attained by both. Berri is reportedly angry for receiving less than 100 votes and has been pointing fingers at the al Mustaqbal bloc members accusing them of breaching an agreement he reached with Hariri.
Berri received 90 votes while Makari received 74 . This means that both Berri and Makari succeeded because of March 14 votes
March 14 has 71 MPs while the opposition has 57 . This means only 3 opposition MPs voted for Makari while 33 March 14 MPs voted for Berri
What is sad is that more than 10 people were injured from celebratory gunfire following the reelection of Berri as the speaker. As soon as the announcement over his reelection was made celebratory gunfire broke out in southern Beirut suburbs . Berri's Amal supporters must have been surprised that their man made it despite his past performance. What is really sad is that one 30 year old woman from the Bazzi family died from a heart attack because the gunfire scared her.
The next step is the formation of the new government
President Suleiman sounded upbeat during an interview with An Nahar . "The general atmosphere is good for creating a government without hindrance or obstacles and I hope that the government would be one productive working team"
Suleiman will start the consultations with the parliament bloc leaders today . Each bloc will name its candidate for premier designate . At the end of the consultations the president is the supposed to name the premier designate based on the recommendations of the parliament blocs. Since March 14 has the parliament majority it is widely expected that Suleiman will be naming Saad Hariri as the Prime minister designate.