The mandate of the current Lebanese parliament will end on June 20, following nine years of many failures and few achievements.
Despite the widespread criticism of this council, which has extended its own tenure twice, a parliamentary source said that the parliament “realized good and acceptable achievements, despite the political and security conditions that prevailed over the course of events in Lebanon.”
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, the source said that Parliament has completed some positive steps since October 30, 2016, when General Michel Aoun was elected President of the Republic after a two and a half years of a presidential vacuum.
Among those steps, the source recounted, was the approval of a new electoral law according to the proportional system for the first time.
The source did not overlook the importance of “the adoption of the general budget law for 2017 and 2018, in addition to the enactment of laws pertaining to the extraction of oil and gas, and others related to the disbursement of loans and grants provided by Arab and international funds for infrastructure projects in Lebanon.”
It admitted, however, that Parliament’s achievements “were not up to the expectations of the Lebanese people, but this was due to the political circumstances that hampered Parliament’s work for several months and prevented it from holding legislative sessions.”
The parliament stopped holding legislative sessions in April 2014, with the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, until the formation of the government of Prime Minister Tamam Salam in late February 2015.
Parliamentary work was also hampered when the deputies were unable to hold a plenary session due to the lack of constitutional quorum to elect a new president. Christian forces refused to proceed with the legislative work in the absence of the President of the Republic.
What the parliamentary source described as “achievements”, Legal and Constitutional Expert and former MP Salah Honein saw as a “failure by all standards.”
In comments to Asharq Al-Awsat, Honein said that the process of electing the president “did not follow the constitutional terms, but came as a result of a political settlement that was a stab at the heart of democratic parliamentary work.”
The new members of the parliament are expected to assume their duties immediately after the end of the mandate of the current parliament. The first session will be presided by the eldest member, who is likely to be Speaker Nabih Berri, 83, unless Mikhael Daher, 91, wins in the elections, which is a low probability.
Parliament is likely to re-elect Berri for the sixth consecutive time in a row. He will be the first speaker in Lebanon’s history to spend three decades at the head of the legislative institution.
