Berri Gives Political Powers til Week's End to Respond to Proposal on 'Legislation of Necessity'

Speaker Nabih Berri presided on Wednesday over a national dialogue session that focused on efforts to revive the work of parliament and the “legislation of necessity.”

He proposed before the gatherers a solution to end the deadlock and he will wait until the end of the week before taking steps linked to the “legislation of necessity,” MP Ali Fayyad told reporters from Ain el-Tineh.

The speaker will hold within this week a series of contacts with various officials on this proposal.

It calls for the parliament bureau to place the agenda of the parliamentary legislative session.

The agenda will include the parliamentary electoral draft-law.

“Should the political parties agree to Berri's suggestion, he will call for a legislative session before the end of May,” added Fayyad.

Wednesday's national dialogue was attended by the main political powers, with Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun being represented by Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil.

“We did not agree on anything and the whole debate at the dialogue centers on equality and fair representation among the Lebanese,” he told reporters.

The next round of talks has been scheduled for May 18.

Berri will continue to exert pressure on the national dialogue participants until they heed his call for an electoral session, As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.

But the newspaper said that he needs a "miracle" to receive the approval of several parties who are not willing to participate in the session unless their demands are met.

Among the demands are placing a new electoral draft-law at the top of the agenda. But Berri says there are other pending issues that need to be approved first.

Parliament convenes twice a year in two ordinary sessions -- the first starts mid-march until the end of May and the second from the middle of October through the end of December.

But the absence of a president since the end of President Michel Suleiman’s term in May 2014 has paralyzed the parliament and led to wrangling among cabinet ministers.

The differences between the different parties also worsened in the past month when they started exchanging accusations of corruption following several scandals that rocked the country.

G.K./M.T.

D.A.