Berri Waiting for Responses on Initiative as Christian Parties Stick to their Stances

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he was still waiting for responses from parliamentary blocs to his proposal to include an electoral draft-law on the agenda of a session that he intends to call for.

“In light of their (the blocs’) responses, I will act accordingly. What matters for me firstly and lastly is the people’s interests,” Berri told his visitors in Ain al-Tineh on Sunday.

Berri said that during the all-party talks last week, all sides except for the Kataeb Party backed his initiative to convene a legislative session.

His remarks were published in local dailies on Monday.

“I will put forward in the legislative session … a decision made by parliament, which calls for not approving any electoral law before the election of a president,” Berri said.

“But if Parliament’s General Assembly decides to annul it, then I will call for a session to discuss an electoral law before the end of May in which the 17 electoral draft-laws will be presented for discussion,” he added.

But Change and Reform bloc member MP Hikmat Deeb told al-Akhbar newspaper that the Free Patriotic Movement’s stance is clear in that regard.

“Serious efforts should be exerted to approve the electoral law and not just propose it,” he said.

Lebanese Forces MP Fadi Karam also told al-Liwaa daily that the LF’s priority is the elections law.

“The party’s MPs will not attend any session whose agenda is not topped with the draft-law,” he said.

Both the LF and the FPM want the law to be the first item on the agenda. But Berri is rejecting their proposal.

Minister Michel Pharaon said that he is not in favor of holding a session from which three main Christian parties, the FPM, LF and Kataeb, are absent.

“No law should be more important and necessary than internal unity,” he told As Safir daily.

G.K.

D.A.