BEIRUT: Parliament is poised to extend its mandate before voting on the public sector’s wage hike bill, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Tuesday after holding talks with Speaker Nabih Berri, sending the strongest signal yet that the extension has become a de facto matter.
The Berri-Siniora meeting came shortly after lawmakers from the March 8 and March 14 blocs re-elected heads and members of 16 committees as well as members of Parliament’s Secretariat during a 15-minute session.
“I think the issue of the extension session is more urgent than the salary scale [draft law],” Siniora, the head of the parliamentary Future bloc, told reporters after the nearly two-hour meeting with Berri. “But things are going in the right direction.”
Held in Berri’s office in Parliament after a regular session, the closed meeting was also attended by Nader Hariri, the chief of staff for former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, along with Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil and Deputy Speaker Farid Makari.
Asked if he had agreed with Berri on the extension session and the duration of extension, Siniora said: “No, we are still consulting on this matter.
He stressed that the election of a new president has top priority. “Inshallah, we hope to see progress in this direction. But so far, there is nothing definite in this respect,” Siniora said.
Lawmakers are expected to meet next week to discuss and approve a draft proposal presented by Zahle MP Nicolas Fattoush that calls for the extension of Parliament’s term for two years and seven months to make it a full four-year mandate after lawmakers, citing security concerns, extended the House’s term for 17 months in May 2013.
Despite reservations voiced by some major blocs about the extension proposal, the majority of lawmakers are expected to eventually endorse the move.
According to parliamentary sources, the Future officials argued that Parliament should approve the extension before discussing the wage hike bill. Both draft laws should be discussed and approved in a legislative session that Berri has yet to schedule.
The approval of the wage hike was stalled early this month by controversy over the treatment of military personnel in the policy. Khalil announced from Parliament that he had already received the military’s proposal for the modification of the hike’s draft law.
“We are ready for the wage hike,” Khalil told reporters. “Deputy Speaker Farid Makari announced that he would ask the speaker to schedule a meeting for Parliament’s Joint Committees to continue studying the [draft law.]”
Due to the time required for the further examination of the wage hike and agreement between all political factions on a final version, sources said they expected Parliament to renew its mandate first, and then possibly resolve the wage-hike dilemma.
The ranks and salary scale has been occupying headlines for three years, as the Union Coordination Committee lobbied with politicians, staged protests and held strikes to call for its quick approval. Although continuously pledging to approve the hike, lawmakers repeatedly failed to reach consensus over the wage-increase percentage and other items.
In Tuesday’s 15-minute session, MPs made minor adjustments to committee assignments, with MP Ziad Aswad elected to replace the late MP Michel Helou on one of the committees, while the Parliament’s Secretariat members were re-elected without any changes. The Parliament’s Secretariat also agreed Tuesday on the agenda of the anticipated legislative session.
Meanwhile, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai reiterated his opposition to extending Parliament’s mandate and accused lawmakers of violating the Constitution. “I will not give my blessings for an extension. I will not bless violations of the Constitution,” Rai told reporters at Beirut airport after returning from a two-week visit to Rome.
Referring to his meeting with Hariri in Rome last week, Rai said the head of the Future Movement was concerned with the fact that lawmakers have failed to elect a president. According to Rai, Hariri said he feared this would prompt an extension of Parliament’s mandate to avoid a political vacuum.
The patriarch, however, stressed that he would not involve himself in the issue of an extension, since a prolonged mandate would “violate the Constitution and the opinions of the Lebanese people who [initially] elected lawmakers for a specified term.”
Asked if he had agreed with Hariri on the need to elect a consensus president, Rai said: “My stance is known. Let the MPs elect a president. Out of respect for MPs and political blocs, I don’t have a preferred candidate and I haven’t imposed a veto on any candidate.”
MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc renewed its opposition to the extension of Parliament’s term and called for elections to be held on time.
“The bloc sees linking parliamentary elections with the presidential vote as a major constitutional mistake that is rejected. Parliamentary elections should be held on schedule,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan told reporters after the bloc’s weekly meeting chaired by Aoun in Rabieh, north of Beirut.
He said the bloc would use “all available legal and constitutional measures” to reject the extension of Parliament’s mandate.
The Future bloc underlined the importance of reaching “a national compromise to elect a consensus president” according to the March 14 coalition’s initiative. “This is the best way to overcome the current crisis in the country,” the bloc said in a statement after its weekly meeting chaired by Siniora.
The March 14 coalition has called for talks with the rival Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance to agree on a consensus candidate to the presidency.
Berri has called for a Parliament session Oct. 29 to choose a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year tenure ended May 25. Parliament failed Oct. 9 for the 13th time in the past five months to elect a president over a lack of quorum.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel are currently in Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi officials on the presidential election and the extension of Parliament’s term, in addition to discussing security developments in the region and their impact on Lebanon, March 14 ministerial sources said.
Gemayel met separately in the Saudi city of Jeddah Tuesday with Hariri, acting Saudi Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdel Aziz and Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal to discuss “the local and regional situation and ways to restore stability to Lebanon and fortify official institutions, at the forefront of which is the Lebanese Army,” according to a statement released by Gemayel’s office.
