Representative Melhem Khalaf said at the beginning of the session to elect the President of the Republic: “I am ashamed of myself to be a representative today, while my people are asking me for flour, bread, milk, electricity and water… I am ashamed of myself to be a representative and I am repeating an absurd scene in which the inability to elect a president is repeated.”

He added, “My constitutional responsibility, and in compliance with what the articles of the constitution impose on me, I will remain inside the parliament hall with Representative Najat Aoun, and we will not leave it until the session is kept open for successive sessions to elect a president to save democracy.”