The Lebanese Parliament at Nejmeh Square, May 15, 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — A meeting of the Parliament's Bureau, which was supposed to elect members of parliamentary committees on Tuesday, did not take place after it failed to reach a quorum.
Following consultations among the members of the Bureau, a decision was made to keep the Bureau and the parliamentary committee members in their posts.
"The Bureau of the House of Representatives, based on the provisions of the rules of procedure and precedents adopted by the Parliament, which ruled that parliamentary committees are considered active based on the principle of the continuation of institutions until elections, decides to consider the members of the Bureau and the current parliamentary committees as valid with all their current members and to inform the heads of the committees and their members of the content of this decision," reads the Bureau's statement.
The Bureau also mentioned precedents in which such a decision was adopted: during the sessions of March 16, 1976; March 21, 1989; and March 19, 2019.
‘Inacceptable’
It is primarily Hezbollah MPs who did not attend the parliamentary session for security reasons, as well as those from the Kataeb party, who argued that priority should be given to electing a president, as well as MPs from the Free Patriotic Movement.
After the session was adjourned, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, who left the Aounist parliamentary group at the end of August and heads the parliamentary committee on Finance and Budget, stated that it is "unacceptable to leave Lebanon without a head of state and without institutions." "Fleeing one's responsibilities is tantamount to fleeing confrontation," he denounced.
Commenting on the postponement of the session, the leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, criticized the fact that the "majority" of MPs "failed in their duty to the Lebanese people." "If the argument is that Lebanon is in a state of war, that is a completely fallacious argument, as constitutional institutions are called to play an even more active role during wartime than in normal times," he wrote in a statement. "And if the reason is that some MPs face security risks and therefore cannot attend Parliament, this can be understood for those MPs, whose number does not exceed fifteen at most," he added. Israel has vowed to eliminate Hezbollah and has eliminated many of its leaders, particularly those responsible for its military operations.
