In an unprecedented move

Two Lebanese MPs spend the night in the parliament hall

Representatives Melhem Khalaf and Najat Aoun spent the night in the plenary hall of Parliament, in an unprecedented move, calling for parliament to hold successive sessions until the election of a president for the republic in Lebanon, mired in a prolonged economic crisis and political paralysis.

Aoun, an academic and environmental expert, said in a videotape from the parliament hall yesterday morning: "We slept here tonight... We believe it is a new day and a new hope for Lebanon."

Khalaf, the former head of the Beirut Bar Association, wished, in the same clip, that their steps would be taken seriously and that they would go towards a new day for a homeland in which it is pleasant to live.

The two deputies, who belonged to an opposition bloc that emerged from the unprecedented protests that Lebanon witnessed against the political class in the fall of 2019, did not leave the parliament hall after the end of a session that was designated Thursday afternoon to elect a president for the country.

In a message to the Lebanese on Thursday, Khalaf considered that the election of "the rescue president has become a matter of urgency more than any time to restore order to the constitutional institutions and launch the rescue train."

And he confirmed his stay in parliament "to push for the election of a president for the republic in successive sessions without interruption."

After the end of the session, the journalists were not allowed to remain in the Parliament, which closed its main doors and turned off its lights after the end of the official working hours.

Only deputies were allowed to enter through a secondary entrance.

Representative Firas Hamdan said in a video clip at night from the parliament hall in the light of a cell phone: “We are in Parliament, like all Lebanese, in the dark, because today the country has reached rock bottom and collapse.”

Representative Halima Kaaqour, who visited Parliament in solidarity with her colleagues, said: "All parliament's roles are suspended in accountability and legislation for the benefit of the people, as in electing a president."

Dozens gathered on Thursday night near an entrance leading to Parliament Square in support of the two deputies' move.

Yesterday, activists on social media circulated calls for a similar sit-in.

Lawyer Imad Ammar, one of the activists who participated in the gathering, told AFP that "the two deputies' sit-in is a form of open confrontation with the political system to put pressure on activating the work of institutions that has been stalled by a clear decision, pending settlements or external orders."

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