View of the interior of the Parliament, December 15, 2023 in Beirut.Photo Hassan Ibrahim/Lebanese Parliament
In a significant decision, Lebanon's Parliament voted to extend the term of army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun by one year— a move that followed weeks of political discourse over the prolongation of his mandate.
Gen. Aoun, who was scheduled to step down on Jan. 10, 2024, will now remain in office. His proposed interim successor, the Lebanese Army chief of staff, already retired in December 2022.
The issue faced stiff resistance, notably led by Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil. Despite this, the extension was fervently supported by Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces, who secured a vital commitment from Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri promising that Parliament would convene to vote on the proposal after a planned cabinet meeting. That meeting later was postponed due to a lack of quorum and rescheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 19, at 9:30 a.m.
Parliament convened on Friday to approve non-emergency legislative items. In less than 30 minutes, MPs passed a law to align "old rents" for commercial leases —stemming from a mid-20th century regulation — with current market prices. These old rents previously favored some business tenants under agreements dating back to 1992. A law passed in 2014 began the gradual liberalization of old residential leases and extended the "old" regime for commercial leases until Dec. 31, 2018. The issue had not been readdressed since then.
Another proposal was approved to amend Article 73 of the Lebanese Code of Criminal Procedure, which outlines pre-trial exceptions available to the defendant, their attorney or the public prosecutor. The specifics of the amendment were not detailed, but Nizar Saghieh, the president of the NGO Legal Agenda, indicated that the revisions aim to streamline the preliminary phase of criminal proceedings.
Two other legislative texts were sent back to committee for further consideration.
One concerned the much-awaited judicial independence reform, initially drafted by a civil society coalition seeking to thwart political interference in the judiciary. Parliament's Administration and Justice Committee's revisions to the draft were criticized as failing to meet the desired transparency and independence goals.
The other returned text concerned law modifications that would authorize Banque du Liban (BDL) to issue new denominations of the Lebanese currency. Such changes, if enacted, would pave the way for printing currency denominations exceeding the current highest value of LL100,000.