Beirut: Lebanon’s new legislature in its first session on Tuesday elected veteran Shia Muslim politician Nabih Beri as speaker of parliament for the seventh time.
Berry, 84, secured 65 votes in the 128-member parliament, where the speaker’s role is reserved for a Shia Muslim under the sectarian political system.
It was the thinnest majority ever won by Berry, reflecting the makeup of a new parliament in which the Iran-backed armed Shia movement Hezbollah and its allies lost the majority won in 2018.
Tuesday’s session was the first since the new parliament was elected on May 15 in the first vote following Lebanon’s economic collapse and the devastating Beirut port explosion of 2020.
Beri, who led the Shia Amal movement, has been a speaker since 1992 and is a close ally of Hezbollah.
About a dozen opposition newcomers took their seats in the more fragmented chamber for the first time, after an expected strong success by reformist candidates in a system dominated by the same sectarian groups.
Hezbollah’s opponents, including Saudi-aligned Lebanese forces – a Christian faction – gained seats.
With parliament divided into several camps, none of which have a majority, analysts warn of the potential for political paralysis that could further delay the reforms needed to lift Lebanon out of economic disaster.
Some of the votes cast in a secret ballot for the speaker had a message echoing complaints against a sectarian elite that has plunged Lebanon into its worst instability since the 1975-90 civil war.
“Justice for the Beirut blast,” read one.
Long-time Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon, Berry was re-elected after the Lebanese ruling parties announced candidates for the parliamentary elections.