Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned shortly after 1: 00 PM, on Thursday, the parliamentary session devoted to extending the term of army commander General Joseph Aoun and reviewing a number of legislative texts.
Parliament will convene again at 6:00 PM
During the morning session, six bills were approved, including the replacement of the CNSS’s end-of-service allowance scheme with a retirement pension, a bill on renewable energy and another on a World Bank (WB) loan for additional funding for the Aman program, which is part of the social protection network.
Parliament referred the capital control bill back to the parliamentary committee “to be voted on at the same time as two other bills on bank restructuring and loss sharing.” Some MPs tried to push the vote through. However, they faced stiff parliamentary opposition, in particular from Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab.
At the end of the meeting, MP Georges Adwane (Lebanese Forces) said that contacts were still going on with parliamentary blocs and opposition MPs to find a common formula to maintain General Aoun at the head of the army “and to prevent the blockade” led by CPL leader Gebran Bassil. “The extension (of General Aoun’s mandate) is a foregone conclusion. It will happen in parliament, even if the government is working on it,” he said.
The session opened at 11:00 AM. It was mainly focused on extending the army commander-in-chief’s term of office. The Lebanese Forces (LF) tried to push that bill through first. However, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri refused.
George Adwane wanted to know whether Parliament would still be in session in the event the government extends General Aoun’s term of office on Friday, to which Berri replied, “We have nothing to do with the government.”
The LF MPs, who have been boycotting legislative sessions on the grounds that Parliament is not supposed to legislate in the absence of a president of the Republic, attended a plenary session for the first time since the end of President Michel Aoun’s mandate. Today’s session was boycotted by Kataeb MPs and the Free Patriotic Movement bloc, who are opposed to the extension of General Joseph Aoun’s mandate.
MPs from the Renewal bloc and others from the opposition, notably those who believe that Parliament should not legislate in the absence of a president, sat down in the box reserved for journalists.
Final consultations were held between Taymour Joumblatt’s Democratic Gathering, the National Bloc (ex-Hariri), and Adib Abdel Massih of the Renewal bloc in close consultation with the Lebanese Forces bloc, who announced their decision to attend the session. The aim is to come up with a unified proposal for keeping General Aoun in office.
Sixteen bills and proposed laws are also on the agenda, having been previously approved by parliamentary committees.
