Parliament Approves 'Necessary Legislation' Financial Bills, Credit for Salaries
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A legislative session was held on Wednesday to tackle several pending issues ahead of a meeting scheduled for October 31 and dedicated to electing a head of state for the vacant presidency.
After a long failure to achieve quorum and end the two and a half years vacancy, the parliamentarians attended the legislative session, except for the boycotting Kataeb party, and 21 "necessary legislation" items were on the agenda.
In the evening, the parliament approved adding an extra credit to the state budget to cover salaries and running expenses.
The parliament also approved all the urgent financial bills, according to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).
Before the morning session began at Nejmeh Square, MP George Adwan of the Lebanese Forces said that the LF decided to attend Wednesday's meeting to participate exclusively in the financial and electoral laws that are listed under “necessary legislation.”
Adwan added that the scheduled meeting at the end of the month will not be postponed and that a president will be elected on that date.
For his part, Speaker Nabih Berri replied to Adwan and said: “I will not vote for the General (MP Michel Aoun) with all due respect, and I will join the ranks of the opposition shall Aoun be elected as president. My words have nothing to to with sectarianism.”
“I am not the one obstructing and if I ever planned to do so, I would not have attended previous election sessions,” he went on to say,” Berri went on to say.
For his part, LF MP Antoine Zahra said: “The LF decided to participate today in order to facilitate the election of a president.”
MP Ibrahim Kanaan of the Change and Reform bloc said at the beginning of the session: “On behalf of the bloc, and due to the magnitude of the financial risks (that Lebanon is facing) and due to the optimism as for the presidency, we will participate in the session but under reservations on items that are not within the framework of necessary legislation.”

The major item of business was a "sense of the Parliament" resolution saying that the mandatory fifty percent Christian representation, per the Constitution's Article 24, was "good for the country and good for the world". The resolution passed on the tie-breaking vote cast by Speaker Berri, who claims to represent Shia interests via his Amal movement, of which he is the only member.