Hamdan, Doueihi withdraw from 'sectarian' parliament secretary vote

MPs Firas Hamdan and Michel Doueihi, who are part of 13 MPs who represent the October 17 uprising, on Tuesday withdrew from a parliament vote to choose two new secretaries for the newly-elected legislature.

The two young lawmakers withdrew following a lengthy debate between MPs and Speaker Nabih Berri over how the vote should be conducted. The debate eventually prompted Berri to call for two separate votes for the two posts – one for a Maronite secretary and another for a Druze secretary. Berri’s move, which aimed to conform to a long-standing sectarian norm, was supported by Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil and his bloc.

“Out of our commitment to the stipulations of the constitution, which is a civilian one, we announce our withdrawal from the electoral race, MP Michel Doueihi and I, seeing as we did not nominate ourselves based on our sectarian affiliations,” Hamdan said.

MP Wael Abu Faour of the Progressive Socialist Party meanwhile stressed that Druze representation should be respected in the election of a parliament secretary, the same as a Shiite figure was elected as parliament speaker and a Greek Orthodox figure was elected as deputy speaker.

“There is a norm,” Abu Faour argued.

MP Paula Yacoubian for her part said that “this is the first time that we witness real voting for parliament’s bureau.”

“Your entire country is built like this,” Berri responded.

MP Alain Aoun of the FPM and MP Hadi Abu al-Hosn of the PSP were later elected as parliament secretaries, with Aoun garnering 65 votes and Abu al-Hosn winning uncontested following Hamdan’s withdrawal.

MP Ziad Hawat of the Lebanese Forces meanwhile received 38 votes as Michel Doueihi garnered four votes.

The MPs Hagop Pakradounian, Michel Moussa and Karim Kabbara were meanwhile named as members of the parliament bureau without a vote, seeing as they were the only candidates for the three seats.

At the end of the session, Berri announced that the election of the heads and members of the parliamentary committees will be held next Tuesday, urging blocs to reach prior agreements in order to avoid the confusion that marred today’s session.