The House of Representatives is preparing for a new round through which the Parliamentary Legislative Kitchen completes the election of the parliamentary committees’ members first, provided that the new committees hold their meetings within a deadline not exceeding 3 days, to elect the 16 chairperson and rapporteur for each committee.
Of course, as a result of the recent parliamentary elections, the election sessions in the House of Representatives are no longer the same as their predecessors, as there was a prior agreement between the blocs and political forces on the membership and presidency of the committees. Therefore, the committee election sessions did not take long time. But the expected scenario this time is different after the entry of change deputies and independents into Parliament, who decided to compete with the traditional forces and parties for membership and chairing the committees. It is clear that some representatives of the Forces for Change, in line with their positions in the session to elect the president, his deputy, and the two secretaries, tend to demand breaking the sectarian distribution in accordance with a custom adopted since Taif until today, and adopting competence, not quotas or sectarianism, a condition they did not adhere to breaking in the election of the council’s president and his deputy.
In any case, the expected scene tomorrow is that no problem with the nominations will object to the membership of the committees, the majority of which ranges from 17 members and 12 to other committees. Rather, the problem will be who will chair these committees, especially the basic committees such as the Finance, Budget, Administration and Justice Committees, which are customarily affiliated with the Maronites, for which change deputies announced the candidacy of Representative Melhem Khalaf , who is Orthodox, for Administration and Justice, and Mark Daw (Druze) for Finance and Budget. The discussion and contacts between opposition forces also center on the dangers of the Free Patriotic Movement receiving the finance and budget committees through Ibrahim Kanaan, and the economy to Farid Al-Bustani, since the movement will be in the government, and it had put the develop the recovery plan and the economic plan, so how can the same team in these two committees discuss a plan that it has developed itself. So far, contacts are still going on to secure a minimum level of consensus, especially within the opposition’s ranks, and limit the battle, if possible, to two or three committees, while it seems that the exchange of votes between all the opposition has been without obstacles so far.