Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil announced Tuesday that his bloc did not vote for Speaker Nabih Berri in the parliament speaker election.

“Our stance is known as to the parliament speakership vote, which is that we cast blank votes,” Bassil said after the election session.

MPs Firas Hamdan and Michel Doueihi, who are part of 13 MPs who represent the October 17 uprising, on Tuesday withdrew from a parliament vote to choose two new secretaries for the newly-elected legislature.

The two young lawmakers withdrew following a lengthy debate between MPs and Speaker Nabih Berri over how the vote should be conducted. The debate eventually prompted Berri to call for two separate votes for the two posts – one for a Maronite secretary and another for a Druze secretary. Berri’s move, which aimed to conform to a long-standing sectarian norm, was supported by Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil and his bloc.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri held talks Tuesday with President Michel Aoun at the Baabda Balace, in a protocol meeting that followed his re-election for a seventh term as parliament speaker.

Asked whether the issue of binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier was discussed in the talks, Berri said: “Certainly.”

MP Elias Bou Saab of the Free Patriotic Movement was on Tuesday elected deputy parliament speaker with 65 votes in the 128-seat legislature, as MP Ghassan Skaff, who is backed by the Progressive Socialist Party, garnered 60 votes.

Bou Saab won 64 votes in the first round of voting, failing to garner the 65 votes needed to be elected from the first round. Skaff garnered only 49 votes in that round as 13 blank ballots were cast.

"I will put the insults behind me... and approach the 'white votes' with a white heart," Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Tuesday, in one of his trademark quips, after being re-elected as parliament speaker for a seventh consecutive term.

65 lawmakers elected Berri while 23 blank votes were casted and 40 were canceled.

Speaker Nabih Berri was reelected Tuesday for his post with the votes of 65 MPs while 23 blank votes were casted and 40 others were canceled for containing political messages rather than a candidate's name.

Heavy gunfire erupted in some Lebanese regions after the result was announced.

Reformist MPs born out of the 2019 protest movement gathered Tuesday outside Beirut's port and met with families of the port blast victims ahead of the first Parliament session.

The independent lawmakers joined the victims' relatives in a symbolic march from the docks to parliament.

French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to visit Lebanon anew after he finalizes some pressing domestic files, a media report said on Monday.

“He has recently informed one of his top aides in the Elysee’s special crisis cell for Lebanon that he intends to visit Beirut immediately after the June 19 French parliamentary elections, and after he carries out changes to his international affairs team,” Lebanon’s privately-run Central News Agency reported.

The MPs of the Independent National Bloc -- Farid al-Khazen, Tony Franjieh and William Tawk – held a meeting Monday with MP Elias Bou Saab of the Free Patriotic Movement, who is running for the deputy parliament speaker post.

The meeting, on the eve of a parliamentary session to elect a speaker and a deputy speaker, was held at Khazen’s residence in Jounieh. It was also attended by ex-minister Youssef Saadeh of the Marada Movement.

The Appeals Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has issued a scheduling order for the pronouncement of the Sentencing Judgment in the case of Prosecutor v. Merhi and Oneissi in a public session on June 16.

On 18 August 2020, the Trial Chamber pronounced its Judgment in the Ayyash et al. case and unanimously found Hizbullah operative Salim Jamil Ayyash guilty beyond reasonable doubt of all counts charged against him in the amended consolidated indictment.