Report: Bou Saab preparing petition to dissolve parliament

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab is preparing a parliamentary petition to dissolve parliament as an exit from the country’s presidential crisis, Lebanese MPs told Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper in remarks published Friday.

Bou Saab had months ago proposed early parliamentary elections as a way out of the deadlock.

Parliamentary sources told the daily that the opposition and Change MPs would “reject this proposal, because perhaps they would be the biggest loser in any new elections.”

Moreover, “the Free Patriotic Movement, whose bloc comprises eight members who won with Hezbollah’s votes, will be obliged to offer concessions to the party to maintain its significant bloc,” the sources said.

As for the Shiite Duo, it might regain the seats it lost in the Sidon-Jezzine area and in the Marjeyoun-Hasbaya region and might also win seats in other districts, the sources added.

A parliamentary petition must be submitted in writing and, according to the constitution, requires the signatures of ten MPs. It would eventually need the approval of two thirds of parliament’s members, after which the parliament speaker informs Cabinet of the resolution. It also needs to be passed in Cabinet with two thirds of the votes.