Phalange Party Urges Postponement of Monday Parliament Session

The Phalange Party on Sunday called for postponing a three-day parliamentary session scheduled to begin on Monday, highlighting the need for “consensus.”

“The Phalange Party lauds Speaker Nabih Berri's call for holding a legislative session to activate parliament's work and approve the urgent draft laws,” it said in a statement.

“To immunize Speaker Berri's call, guarantee the attendance of parliamentary bloc and prevent any ambiguity amid these critical circumstances in Lebanon and the region, the Phalange Party calls for postponing tomorrow's session and making the necessary contacts to secure consensus on attending the sessions,” it added.

The party said that it is necessary to settle the issue of extending the mandate of Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji given the current security situations in the country.

A three-day parliamentary session set by Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday will likely fail to convene over the boycott of March 14 alliance blocs in addition to an inclination by the Change and Reform bloc not to attend.

An al-Mustaqbal bloc source told An Nahar daily published Sunday that its lawmakers will not participate in the session in compatibility with the rest of the March 14 members.

The Lebanese Forces has considered as unlawful the parliament meetings outside its ordinary sessions. Independent Christian lawmakers led by Batroun MP Butros Harb also rejected the agenda put forward for the session.

The session has several draft-laws on its agenda, including the extension of the term of Qahwaji, who turns 60 this September, by raising the retirement age.

The major argument made by the March 14 alliance along with Premier Najib Miqati against the session is that parliament can’t convene in the presence of a caretaking cabinet although Berri claimed on Saturday that there was ample evidence of the legislature convening in the past under a resigned government.

The latest example is the extension of parliament’s term under the resigned cabinet of Miqati, Berri said.

The 128-member parliament convenes twice a year in two ordinary sessions -- the first starts mid-march until the end of May and the second from the middle of October through the end of December.