New Parliament to 'Re-Elect Berri on May 22'

The new parliament will hold a session on May 22 to re-elect AMAL Movement leader Nabih Berri to a sixth term as Parliament Speaker, a media report said.

"The Parliament Bureau will soon convene under the most senior MP, Michel Murr, to make the necessary preparations ahead of a session to elect a new speaker," al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday, noting that "there are confirmed indications that Berri will be re-elected."

"The election session will likely be held on May 22," the daily added.

Berri himself told al-Joumhouria that he has called Murr and consulted with him over the issue.

"The date of the session falls under the responsibility of the most senior MP, who will assume his duties on May 21 in coordination with Parliament Secretary-General Adnan Daher," Berri clarified.

"MP Murr will chair the parliament in the period between May 21 and the date of the election session, and some of his rivals must prepare themselves psychologically for this," a smiling Berri quipped.

Hailing Murr, the Speaker noted that he has never disagreed with the senior lawmaker since 1991.

"We have always been in the same alignment, with the same approach towards political and national junctures," Berri added.

Asked whom he prefers for the post of Deputy Speaker, said "political common sense" obliges him to say that "the Free Patriotic Movement possesses the advantage to name the Greek Orthodox deputy speaker," seeing as it has the biggest Christian bloc.