Berri: Constitutional Council to Be Established by Year-End

Source: Al-Manar TV, 8-10-2008
Once again, the Lebanese Parliament convened on Wednesday in a legislative session, set to put an end to the Constitutional Council crisis alongside adopting a series of decisions in various domains.
Ahead of the session, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told the Lebanese daily As-Safir that the Constitutional Council is the first item on the parliament's agenda, stressing that the council will be established before the end of the current year.
According to the Lebanese daily, the head of the Administration and Justice parliamentary committee MP Robert Ghanem's proposal to prolong the deadline for submitting candidacies for the membership of the Constitutional Council will predictably represent an essential part of the parliamentary debate, especially after Minister of Justice Ibrahim Najjar prepared a draft law aiming to annul the law issued on 09/06/2006.
Najjar said that his own proposal was a draft law which the cabinet would hand over to parliament. Due to lack of time and the upcoming cabinet session on Friday, the minister said, "we found it essential to speed up the process."
"For this reason, the MPs suggested a draft law, and I think the draft law will be facilitated, especially after the statements of my colleagues and Speaker Berri," he added.
For his part, Ghanem said that he had similar views about the Constitutional Council to those of Minister Najjar. "To gain time, I adopted the proposal of the Justice Minister," he told the Voice of Lebanon radio station, adding that the legal process and establishment of the Constitutional Council must be completed within two months.
Meanwhile, a Change and Reform MP asserted that the effects of the contestation of the current law pertaining to the Constitutional Council have all been annulled according to the new proposal submitted by Minister Ibrahim Najjar. Accordingly, the contestation has thus become unfounded.
SANIORA: WE MISSED CHANCES BECAUSE OF DISPUTES
During the parliamentary session, Prime Minister Fouad Saniora said that "we wasted our time in disputes," and missed the opportunity presented by the oil boost.
He said that being busy with its own problems has made Lebanon disregard the current international monetary crisis. However, he also said that Lebanon was safe from this "storm."
Saniora also said that the parliament was the right place to question the cabinet.