Berri Denies Parliament Can't Discuss Wage Hike during Presidential Elections

Speaker Nabih Berri has denied that the parliament would not be able to vote on the controversial wage scale after he called on MPs to meet to elect a new president on April 23.

“The two issues are not linked,” the speaker told An Nahar newspaper published on Thursday.

Berri's denial came after critics warned that the parliament would not be able to convene to legislate.

Article 75 of the Constitution states that “the chamber meeting to elect the president … shall be considered an electoral body and not a legislative assembly. It must proceed immediately, without discussion of any other act, to elect the head of the state.”

But Telecommunications Minister Butros Harb, who is a lawyer, told An Nahar that Article 73 of the Constitution, which states that parliament should convene a month at least and two months at most before the end of the president's term, does not say that the assembly cannot legislate.

“This means that legislation and the elections could take place until May15,” when President Michel Suleiman's six-year tenure ends, Harb said.

Berri's call for a parliamentary meeting next Wednesday is expected to be the first in several attempts to elect a president.

But the parliament has an important item on its agenda, the controversial pay hike which will be studied by a committee before allowing MPs to deliberate on it.

The assembly formed the committee on Tuesday after lawmakers failed to agree on the wage scale over fears that the state lacked the appropriate sources to fund it.

The committee will meet on Thursday to propose an amended version to the draft-law and put it up for discussion in parliament around the beginning of May.

The controversy on the pay raise has led to protests and strikes by the Syndicate Coordination Committee, which has also announced an open-ended strike on April 29.

The SCC is a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employee.

G.K.

H.K.