BEIRUT, 28 June 2005 — Lebanon’s main parliamentary blocs have agreed to back the re-election of Nabih Berri, virtually guaranteeing the strong Syrian ally will secure the post of Parliament speaker, political sources said yesterday.
The 128-member assembly look set to re-elect Berri when it holds its first meeting since the May 29-June 19 elections today, despite international reservations over one of the main enforcers of Syria’s grip on Lebanon.
The elections were won by groups that opposed Syria’s role in Lebanon for the first time since the 1975-1990 civil war, but the country’s delicate sectarian balance means lawmakers have little choice but to back Berri, a Shiite Muslim, political sources said.
Berri’s alliance with the Hezbollah group won more than 80 percent of the Shiite vote in the polls, which makes replacing him appear like Parliament is defying the will of a large segment of the Lebanese people, the sources said.
Lebanon’s sectarian system divides top government positions among its main religious sects. The country’s president is always a Maronite Christian, prime minister a Sunni Muslim and parliament speaker a Shiite.
Shiites, the country’s largest sect, had largely stayed away from anti-Syrian protests after the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The protests helped force Syria to bow to international pressure to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April. Western diplomats had said they hoped Berri would be removed to make way for change in the post-Syria era.
But the parliamentary blocs of Saad Al-Hariri, the ex-premier’s son, and Druze chieftain Walid Jumblatt agreed to support Berri, who has been speaker since 1992, after he pledged to back reform.
