Legislative session adjourned due to lack of quorum
Parliament did not convene Thursday due to a lack of quorum as only 52 lawmakers showed up to attend a legislative session that was supposed to discuss several laws including the capital control law and the oil and gas sovereign fund draft law.
Meanwhile, demonstrators rallied outside parliament to protest the capital control law.
Opposition MPs had called Wednesday on all blocs to boycott today's session and all the coming parliamentary sessions, as they considered parliamentary sessions "unconstitutional" amid a presidential void.
The Free Patriotic movement also did not attend the session that it considered as "non urgent."
"What is more urgent than today's articles," asked caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who had met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri before the session.
"We have reached a very difficult stage," he said, stressing that if the bank restructuring law is not approved, further problems would threaten Lebanon.
Restructuring the banking sector is a key demand of the International Monetary Fund to start getting Lebanon out of its paralyzing financial crisis. The proposed IMF reforms will likely force most of the country’s 46 banks — a huge number for a nation of 5 million people — to close down or merge.
Source: Naharnet
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