Lebanese parliament expected to re-elect Berri as speaker; Hariri likely to lead government

Saeed Dhaher
For Al-Shorfa.com
2009-06-26

Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir meets with parliamentary Majority Leader Saad Al-Hariri, who he supports for prime minister. (Archive/AFP/Getty Images)

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s newly elected parliament assumed power at midnight on June 20 and entered into a constitutionally mandated 15-day consultation period with the choice of its speaker as the first item on the agenda. The previous government will act as caretaker until the new cabinet is formed. The Lebanese Constitution requires that the speaker of the parliament be a Shiite Muslim and the prime minister a Sunni Muslim.

Parliamentary sources and political analysts alike predict that Nabih Berri will be selected for a fifth term as speaker of the parliament. He has served in that capacity since 1992.

Neither parliamentary Majority Leader Saad Al-Hariri nor Democratic Gathering leader Walid Jumblatt is opposed to voting for Berri. Their Christian allies, however, are reluctant to see Berri re-elected without assurances that the chamber will not be suspended again, as it was two years ago after the previous government was declared unconstitutional.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea insisted, however, that if Berri adheres to the agenda of the March 8 alliance, “we will not vote for him. If his programme meshes with the beliefs of the majority of Lebanese voters who elected March 14, then we will vote for him.”

March 14’s victory has raised Saad Al-Hariri’s chances of leading the new government. The structure of the incoming government has been the subject of intense public debate as to whether it should include members of the losing opposition to form a national unity government or exclude them.

A member of the March 14 bloc elaborated, “It is natural that Al-Hariri should be put forward. If it weren’t for the fact that March 14 won a parliamentary majority, with 71 seats in the chamber, then perhaps Najib Mikati, who won in Tripoli, would have been nominated as an independent and centrist candidate.”

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Safir has stated that he would support the chamber’s choice for the leader of the government. Regarding Representative Al-Hariri, he said, “He is known to be a moderate, and he is the son of a man who filled the same position and served his country well.”

Sources: Free Lebanon Radio/ National Information Agency/

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