CELEBRATORY GUNFIRE rippled across Beirut yesterday, proclaiming the re-election of Nabih Berri to a fifth consecutive term as speaker of parliament.
His resumption of the position signifies a return to Lebanon’s tradition of consensual politics in the wake of the seriously flawed and potentially divisive June 7th parliamentary election.
A deal over the post of speaker was clinched on Wednesday when Mr Berri, a partner in the Hizbullah- led opposition backed by Syria and Iran, received a visit from Saad Hariri, who heads the pro-western ruling bloc which secured a majority of 71 seats in the assembly as compared to 57 for the opposition.
Mr Hariri said his Future Movement, the largest component in the ruling bloc, would vote for Mr Berri who can now be expected to support Mr Hariri’s bid to be prime minister.
Under an agreement reached ahead of Lebanon’s independence in 1943, the speaker must be a Shia, the prime minister a Sunni and the president and armed forces chief Maronite Catholics.
Mr Berri, leader of the secular Shia Amal movement, garnered 90 votes out of 128; 28 legislators cast blank ballots.
Since he was first chosen assembly speaker in 1992 two years after the end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, Mr Berri has played a key role in the country’s politics. In his southern constituency, the Amal movement has brought electricity, water and roads to neglected Shia villages. His militia fought with Hizbullah to force Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000 and during Israel’s 2006 onslaught on the country.
Over the past 18 months he has worked hard to reconcile the two warring blocs. His aim was to revert to governance by communal consensus in order to avoid the damaging and destructive deadlock which followed the withdrawal of Hizbullah and its allies from the cabinet in late 2006.
Last week, the influential Druze chief, Walid Jumblatt, who was the sharpest critic of the opposition, agreed with Hizbullah’s secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to promote national unity and communal coexistence.
