The election law ignites the parliament session … withdrawals folded the quorum and another session tomorrow

The parliamentary election law sparked a great and wide controversy in the House of Representatives, today, Monday, after it was excluded from the agenda of the legislative session held today, Monday, to study 17 draft laws.

The majority of the political blocs poured their focus on the issue of the elections, while deputies expressed their concerns about their delay, so that the Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Ahmed Al -Hajjar, announced from the pulpit of Parliament, that he is committed to holding the parliamentary elections at the date of May 2026 ″.

After the session lasted for nearly two and a half, the Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri announced the lifting of the session after the loss of its quorum after the withdrawal of a number of parliamentary blocs, especially the “Lebanese Forces” bloc, and called for a public session to be held tomorrow, Tuesday, at 11:00 pm to complete the discussion and approval of the remaining agenda.

The course of the session .. Berri on Salam: He is the head of the government of all of Lebanon

The session, which started at 11 am, was preceded by a meeting between Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. As a result, the legislative session started, and at its beginning, MP Firas Hamdan called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, so the response came quickly from Berri, saying: “This is the prime minister of the whole of Lebanon and the government is not one or two government .. The government is involved in everyone .. Fear God, group.”

Also, Berri responded to the interventions of some deputies in the matter related to the election law, and he said: “Stop attempts to bypass the current election law.”

After a discussion in a closed session far from the cameras’ lenses, the House of Representatives approved a series of law suggestions, most notably:
1- Approving the leave for the government of the Lebanese Republic signing the headquarters agreement with the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development and the Lebanon Fund for Development and Innovation regarding the hosting of the Arab Office for Agricultural Entrepreneurship and granting the latter immunities and benefits
2- Approval of the conclusion of the attachment of the headquarters agreement between the Lebanese government, the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development and the Lebanon Fund for Development and Innovation regarding the hosting of the Arab Office for the Leadership of Agricultural Business
3- Approval of the accelerated draft law related to the regulation of partnership between the public and private sectors
4- Opening an additional accreditation of 2350 billion Lebanese pounds for retirement pensions to pay 12 million pounds per month for retirees in the public sector
5- Approving the draft law aimed at leave for the Lebanese government to join the United Nations Framework Agreement on Biological Diversity outside the scope of the national jurisdiction.
A verbal argument between Khalil and Adwan
In addition, press information stated that “a verbal altercation occurred during the parliamentary session between MP Ali Hassan Khalil on the one hand and MP George Ada and a number of deputies of the strong Republic’s bloc on the other hand, against the background of Khalil’s accusation of them that they want to fly the elections.
Khalil said after the speech of a number.
After humiliation, the screaming prevailed, and the deputies of the “forces” said to Khalil: “You respect your condition.”
Withdrawals during the session and statements
In addition, the withdrawal of parliamentary blocs was recorded from the legislative session, the first of which was the “Kataeb” bloc, in protest against the non -inclusion of the proposal to amend the parliamentary election law on the agenda.
The head of the bloc, MP Sami Al -Jameel from the council, said that “today’s session constitutes a judge and a exclusion of the Lebanese expatriates, as soon as we do not discuss the matter and we do not find a solution to vote, whether by six deputies dedicated to alienation or within the 128 seats.”
He added: “The democratic process assumes the proposal to vote, and we are ready to bear the result, but to prevent the discussion, this is unacceptable,” warning that the lack of discussion of the law may lead to “eliminating the right of expatriates to vote, and opening the door to postponing the elections or conducting it without participating in the Lebanese proliferation.”
Al -Gemayel stressed that his party does not want to lose “the positive influence of the voices of expatriates towards building the state,” considering that withdrawing from the session is a message that expresses the seriousness of what is happening.
In turn, the head of the “Free Patriotic Movement”, Representative Gibran Bassil, who came out of the session, said that “the government should be responsible for implementing the election law and any talk that was narrated in or outside the parliamentary session that the law is not subject to applicable is never true.”
Bassil stated that “the government cannot throw the election law ball in the stadium of the House of Representatives,” and added: “Everyone who does not want to postpone the elections must apply the law as it is and when it is prepared in the House of Representatives there is another conversation.”
He continued: “There is no easier to implement the election law, and we do not have to cheat expatriates and lie to them.”
As for MP Waddah Al -Sadiq, he said that “throwing the ball into the government stadium regarding the parliamentary elections is aimed at postponing it,” noting that “it is not possible to accept that the government gives the powers of Parliament.”
Al -Sadiq added: “We will not allow them to postpone the elections, and I wish the Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri to explain to us how this article is applied.”
He continued: “There is a political interest in postponing the elections, and we have as deputies to meet and discuss how the law is applied.”
For his part, Representative Ali Fayyad considered that the expatriate polling file is “deficient in itself” and suffers from a basic problem, explaining that any election law must be based on the principle of equal opportunities between both candidates and voters.
Fayyad said that there is a “clear attempt to turn against the existing election law, with the aim of radically changing the parliamentary map and preventing political forces from practicing its free parliamentary movement.”
In turn, a member of the strong Republic’s bloc, Representative Antoine Habashi, stressed that what is happening today is very dangerous and who does not want to hold the elections does not allow a repeated urgent law to be presented in the parliament in order to see what the people want.
Habashi said: “The most dangerous issue is old, backward and continuous, which is the way to manage the parliament, and those who referred the expedited law refined to the sub -committees are reduced to the person of the deputies, and so our issues are managed.”
He added: “Our country is on the palm of a pile and talk about the possibility of war again and the elections after a few months, and there is an insistence that the voice of the deputies and the people does not hear and the first to listen and discuss the file of disarmament and this cloning method in managing the affairs of people brought us to what we are today.”
He continued: “No one has the right to use the committees and the House of Representatives to bury the will of the Lebanese people and fly the parliamentary and the most beneficial entitlement today to put forward the law of the repetitive expedited to vote on the attribute of the expediting, and the path of state institutions is not possible.”
In turn, Representative Ghazi Zuaiter replied to Habashi’s words, saying: “The Speaker of the Council plays his role as the president of the parliament in full and not for a specific team.”
As for MP Farid Al -Khazen, he said that “what we see in the House of Representatives today suggests that the train to postpone the parliamentary elections has started.”
In a post on his account on the “Ax” platform, Al -Khazen said: “We insist that constitutional benefits must take place on their dates, specifically the parliamentary elections.”
Also, Representative Simon Abi Ruma said that “the discussion that takes place between deputies and blocs on the election law is not stem from the public interest,” considering that “every political team is concerned with its own accounts.”
In a statement to him from Parliament, Abi Ruma said: “I exclude the agreement on a unified election law, and I ask to respect the legal principles and return to the Parliament’s General Assembly for discussion, in order to avoid the postponement of the elections until unnecessary.”
Likewise, Representative Michel Moawad considered that there is a dangerous path that we see from “Hizbullah” and its team by trying to hit the state and weakening its institutions, noting that what is happening with the issue of electing expatriates is a clear constitutional violation.
Moawad from the House of Representatives asked: “For the benefit of weakening the state?”, Considering that its weakening means going towards tensions.