Berri re-elected as speaker of Lebanon house
Nabih Berri drew the votes of 98 of 128 MPs at the new parliament’s first session
BEIRUT: Politician Nabih Berri, a close ally of the Hezbollah group, was re-elected for a sixth term as speaker of Lebanon’s parliament in an uncontested vote on Wednesday.
Another Hezbollah ally, Elie Ferzli, was elected deputy speaker, reflecting a shift in Lebanon’s political landscape in favour of the group.
Berri then said President Michel Aoun would begin consultations with lawmakers on Thursday to pick Lebanon’s next prime minister, likely to be the previous one, Saad Al Hariri.
Aoun is obliged to designate as prime minister the candidate with the broadest support among MPs. Hezbollah, and groups and individuals that support it, won at least 70 of parliament’s 128 seats in the May 6 election. The result was a reversal of Lebanon’s last general election in 2009, when anti-Hezbollah groups scored a majority.
Berri drew the votes of 98 of 128 MPs at the new parliament’s first session. After being reappointed as speaker, a role he has held since 1992, he called for a new government to be formed as soon as possible.
New government
Lebanon is under pressure to form a new government quickly to tackle a dire economic situation and unsustainable public debt levels.
Hariri, who headed the outgoing cabinet, faces tough negotiations to form a coalition government including all the main parties. He will lead a caretaker government until the new cabinet is agreed.
Berri, 80, heads the Amal Movement and has been allied with Hezbollah since the end of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war.
Hariri, an opponent of Hezbollah, had declared support for the re-election of Berri as speaker.
Under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, the speaker must be a Shiite, the deputy speaker a Greek Orthodox Christian, the prime minister a Sunni and the president a Maronite Christian.