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PARLIAMENT

Parliamentary committees: who's in?

Parliamentary committees: who's in?

The Tuesday session of Parliament, chaired by Nabih Berri, to elect parliamentary committees in Nejmeh Square. (Credit: Ali Fawaz/Lebanese Parliament)

BEIRUT — The Lebanese Parliament convened on Friday in a plenary session and elected the members of the last two parliamentary committees — the Health, Labor and Social Affairs Committee as well as the Education Committee. The heads and representatives of all the committees were also elected today.

Here’s what we know:

    • The newly elected members of the Public Health, Labor and Social Affairs Committee are: Bilal Abdallah (Progressive Socialist Party/Mount Lebanon IV), Ahmad Rustom (related to Future/North I), Michel Moussa (Amal Movement/South II), Samer al-Tom (Free Patriotic Movement/Bekaa III), Ghassan Skaff (independent/Bekaa II), Ghassan Hasbani (Lebanese Forces/Beirut I), Elias Jaradeh (opposition/South III), Amin Sherri (Hezbollah/Beirut II), Abdel Rahman Bizri (independent/South I), Inaya Ezzedine (Amal/South II), Fadi Alami (Amal/Mount Lebanon III), Rami Fanj (opposition/North II).

    • Twenty members of Parliament had run for this committee including Bilal al-Hashimi (related to Future/Bekaa I) and Farid Boustany (FPM/Mount Lebanon IV) who withdrew from the race just before MPs were invited to cast their ballots.

    • The newly elected members of the Education committee are: Salim Sayegh (Kataeb/Mount Lebanon I), Ghassan Skaff (independent/Bekaa II), Antoine Habshi (LF/Bekaa III), Ali Khreis (Amal/South II), Ali Fayyad (Hezbollah/South III), Ihab Hamadeh (Hezbollah/Bekaa III), Hassan Mrad (linked to March 8/Bekaa II), Ashraf Beydoun (Amal/ South III), Oussama Saad (independent/South I), Edgar Traboulsi (FPM/Beirut II), Asaad Dergham (FPM/North I), Bilal al-Hashimi (related to Future/Bekaa I).

    • After these elections, the Speaker of the House, Nabih Berri, adjourned the meeting. The committees then met separately to elect their heads and representatives.

    • Ibrahim Kanaan (FPM/Mount Lebanon III) was re-elected, without much surprise, as head of the Finance Committee and Ali Fayyad (Hezbollah/South III) as representative of the same committee. On Tuesday, the re-election of Kanaan to his position seemed somewhat guaranteed. Georges Adwan (LF/Mount Lebanon IV) was re-elected chairman of the Administration and Justice Committee, with George Atallah (FPM/North Lebanon III) as representative.

    • On Tuesday, the new MPs from the May 15 legislative elections elected the members of 12 other committees.

    • The parliamentary committees have an important role to play in the legislative process, as they must vote on bills sent to them by the government before they are sent to the Parliament. Among the most important committees are those of Administration and Justice, Finance and Budget, and the Environment.

    • Once these committees are elected, the deputies should be summoned by the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, for the binding parliamentary consultations for the appointment of a new prime minister. A source at the Presidential Palace told L'Orient Today on Thursday that these consultations will be held next week. 

BEIRUT — The Lebanese Parliament convened on Friday in a plenary session and elected the members of the last two parliamentary committees — the Health, Labor and Social Affairs Committee as well as the Education Committee. The heads and representatives of all the committees were also elected today.Here’s what we know:    • The newly elected members of the Public Health, Labor...