Parliament on Thursday re-installed Nabih Berri for a fifth 4-year-term as Parliament Speaker and Farid Makari as Deputy Speaker for a second term.
Berri received 90 votes and 28 white ballots, while Makari got 74 votes and 25 white ballots.
The Phalange Party and the Lebanese Forces have openly objected to Berri”s re-election for failure to provide guarantees beforehand that he would not shut doors of Parliament as he did during an 18-month political crisis that gripped Lebanon before a deal was cut in Doha on electing a new President. They have threatened to cast white votes.
127 of the 128-seat Parliament — 13 political blocs and 11 independent MPs — took part in the vote on a Speaker. Absence was MP Riad Rahhal.
Nominated for the Office of Parliament were MPs Marwan Hamadeh, Serge Tor Sarkissian and Michel Moussa while Ahmed Fatfat and Antoine Zahra to the Secretariat.
Berri”s re-election was settled after intensive political contacts, particularly within March 14 Forces and Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc.
These contacts included detailed debate on the importance of voting for or against Berri.
The daily As Safir said Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Saad Hariri heard objections on Berri during the launch meeting Wednesday of "Lebanon First" parliamentary bloc in Qoreitem.
It said Hariri, however, warned the protesters that he had "paid a dear price" for the May 7, 2007 bloody events, adding that "if we are keen on coexistence, then we must extend our hand to Berri."
Pan-Arab al-Hayat, for its part, said Hariri even heard quite a bit of objections from his own bloc.
It said many MPs reminded Hariri of the previous era when Berri shut down Parliament during the 18-month crisis, refusing to open up the doors not even as a tribute to the memory of lawmakers who were assassinated during that period.