Representatives Melhem Khalaf and Najat Aoun sat in the plenary hall of the House of Representatives for a whole night, demanding that Parliament hold successive sessions until the election of a President for the Republic in Lebanon, which is mired in a prolonged economic crisis and political paralysis.
Aoun said, Friday, an academic and environmental expert, in a videotape from Parliament Hall, on Friday morning, “We slept here tonight… We believe it is a new day and a new hope” for Lebanon.
Khalaf, the former head of the Beirut Bar Association, wished, in the same clip, that their steps would be taken “seriously, and that we go towards a new day for a homeland in which it is pleasant to live.”
The two deputies, who were members of an opposition bloc that emerged from the unprecedented protests that Lebanon witnessed against the political class in the fall of 2019, did not leave the parliament hall after the end of a session that was devoted, Thursday afternoon, to electing a president for the country.
In a message to the Lebanese, on Thursday, Khalaf considered that the election of “the rescue president has become more urgent than ever to restore order to the constitutional institutions and launch the rescue train.” He confirmed his stay in parliament “to push for the election of a president for the republic in successive sessions without interruption.”
After the session ended, journalists were not allowed to remain in Parliament, which closed its main doors and turned off its lights after the end of official working hours. Only deputies were allowed to enter through a secondary entrance.
They were joined, on Thursday evening, by a number of opposition MPs. Some of them published video clips showing the power outage at night inside the hall and their reliance on cell phone lights for lighting.
Representative Firas Hamdan said in a video clip at night from the parliament hall in the light of a cell phone, “We are in the parliament, like all the Lebanese, in the dark, because the country today has reached rock bottom and collapse.”
Representative Halima Kaaqour, who visited Parliament in solidarity with her colleagues, said, “All parliament’s roles are suspended: in accountability and legislation for the benefit of the people, as well as in electing a president.”
Despite the end of former President Michel Aoun’s term at the end of October, parliament failed Thursday for the eleventh time to elect a successor due to deep political divisions, especially since any political party does not have a parliamentary majority that would allow it to deliver a candidate.
Dozens gathered on Thursday night near an entrance leading to Parliament Square in support of the two deputies’ move. On Friday, activists circulated calls for a similar sit-in on Friday afternoon.
Lawyer Imad Ammar, one of the activists who participated in the gathering on Thursday, told AFP that “the two deputies’ sit-in is a form of open confrontation with the political system to pressure towards activating the work of institutions that has been stalled by a clear decision, pending settlements or external orders.”
He continued, “The Lebanese must return to the streets and support the sit-in of the deputies in order to exert pressure from within and outside the institutions, otherwise the loss will be much greater.”
The failure of Parliament on Thursday coincided with the lira’s record deterioration, as the exchange rate exceeded the threshold of fifty thousand against the dollar, in an indication of the depth of the political and economic crises, for which no solutions are on the horizon.
The authorities have so far failed to implement reforms required by the international community to provide support in order to stop the bleeding.
The International Monetary Fund announced in April that it had reached a preliminary agreement with Lebanon on a $3 billion aid plan over four years. However, its application is also linked to the authorities’ commitment to implement prior reforms, including the unification of exchange rates.