Lebanon: Nabih Berri re-elected for a seventh term as head of Parliament
Re-elected speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri is pictured on May 31, 2022 as the newly elected Lebanese parliament meets for the first time to elect a president and vice president in Beirut REUTERS - MOHAMED AZAKIR
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The traditional parties have strengthened their hold on parliament.
Shiite leader Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, was elected this Tuesday, May 31 president of the Lebanese Parliament for a seventh consecutive four-year term.
Deputy Elias Bou Saab, a member of the Courant patriotique libre founded by Michel Aoun, was elected vice-president of the legislature, a post which goes to the Greek-Orthodox community, according to the denominational distribution of the high functions of the State in force in Lebanon.
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With our correspondent in Beirut,
Paul Khalifeh
Nabih Berri's re-election comes as no surprise considering he was the only candidate in the running.
The Amal movement that he chairs and Hezbollah, which won the 27 Shiite seats in Parliament, practically imposed this eminent and controversial representative of the traditional political class.
Although he was elected in the first round with 65 votes out of the 128 in the Chamber, it is the first time in 30 years that Nabih Berri has obtained such a low score.
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See also Lebanon: the traditional parties return in force to Parliament despite the breakthrough of the challenge
Hezbollah's Christian ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, cast blank ballots in the ballot box.
40 votes were canceled including four bearing the name of Lokman Slim, a Shiite intellectual hostile to the pro-Iranian party, assassinated in February 2021.
The battle for the vice-presidency of the House was tighter.
It was finally the candidate of the Free Patriotic Movement, Elias Bou Saab, who narrowly won in the second round.
He had in front of him a candidate supported by the opposition and the 13 deputies who claim to be part of the popular protest movement.
During this first constitutional deadline after the legislative elections, the traditional parties strengthened their hold on a fragmented Chamber, where no coalition holds a clear majority.
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