Bou Saab denies Speaker-Deputy Speaker deal with Amal

Newly elected Deputy Speaker MP Elias Bou Saab denied Wednesday any deal between the Free Patriotic Movement and Amal.

Bou Saab said that the equal number of votes for him and for Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri does not mean there is a deal.

"The deal is a figment of the imagination of the instigators," Bou Saab added.

Media reports had said that Bassil's bloc would vote for Berri in return for Amal's votes for Bou Saab. Other reports said that at least four members of Bassil's bloc would vote for Berri.

"I was expecting 64 votes," Bou Saab said, adding that his new post is very important as the Deputy Speaker will head the joint committees where laws are made. Bou Saab had won with 65 votes in a second round against PSP-backed MP Ghassan Skaff.

Meanwhile al-Akhbar newspaper said that Bou Saab should have won from the first round, in which he had garnered 64 votes.

It claimed, based on detailed historical parliamentary events and legal documents, that blank votes and spoiled votes should not be counted in the majority count, thus the majority should have been 57 out of 113 votes.