Opposition MPs Meet with Berri amid Lack of Progress on Electoral Committee Meeting

A delegation of March 14 opposition lawmakers met with Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday amid a sign of lack of progress on the activation of the meetings of a parliamentary subcommittee tasked with drafting an electoral law.

MP Marwan Hamadah, who was part of the four-member delegation, announced following the talks with Berri in Ain el-Tineh that further discussions were required on the resumption of the meetings.

“There are around two more details to resolve in order for the committee to convene,” Hamadeh told reporters.

“The meeting with Berri was honest and contacts will continue,” he said.

The delegation that comprised MPs Hamadeh, Samir al-Jisr, Elie Marouni and Antoine Zahra, visited Berri as part of efforts exerted to find consensus on an electoral draft-law ahead of the 2013 polls.

The opposition's parliamentary committee heads, rapporteurs and members of parliament's bureau met on Monday at MP Butros Harb's residence for the second time in 12 days.

The lawmakers said they were willing to attend the meeting of the subcommittee to agree on a new electoral draft-law but stuck onto their demand for the nonattendance of government representatives.

The statement of the opposition MPs held onto the boycott of Prime Minister Najib Miqati's government and called for the formation of a new cabinet.

Lebanon plunged in a political crisis in October after the March 14 alliance blamed the government for the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan.

Following al-Hasan's murder in a car bomb blast in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district, the opposition boycotted all parliamentary activity and called for the formation of a salvation cabinet to oversee the parliamentary polls in 2013.