Berri: Battle not over, they don΄t know me well!

 
Source: Daily Star, 14-02-2009

BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri said on Friday that a legislative session scheduled for next Thursday will include discussion of lowering the minimum voting age from 21 to 18.
Earlier in the day, Berri asked lawmakers to the session to address a number of draft laws and proposals.

The speaker told Western Bekaa dignitaries who visited him at his residence in Beirut that voting in the upcoming parliamentary elections should be based on platforms and electoral programs and not on loyalty to individuals.
Berri said his Amal Movement's platform included the forming of a national council to abolish political sectarianism.

The speaker also told his visitors that recent attacks on the performance of the Council of the South were unjustified.
"This council which has been lately under criticism had contributed to developing deprived areas in the South and Western Bekaa. I challenge any party to prove that funds that were allocated for this council were exploited politically," he said.

"They think that the debate on the Council of the South ends in newspapers and magazines. In fact, they do not know me well," he added.
Rival camps within the Cabinet are at odds over funding the Council of the South amid claims by some (US backed) March 14 politicians that funds for the council were being used for political and electoral purposes.

March 8 ministers have argued in response that canceling the Council of the South would not be possible unless similar funds and councils were also cancelled, referring to the Central Fund for the Displaced, the Council for Reconstruction and Development, and the Higher Relief Council.

Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil has proposed replacing all such funds with a Planning Ministry.
On a separate front, Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader and MP Walid Jumblatt sent a letter to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulating him on the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution.

"The Iranian people, armed with faith and unity, carried out a civilized and peaceful unprecedented revolution in history, and defeated the strongest dictatorship in the world," read the letter. "We hope the Iranian people will retrieve the spirit and principles of the revolution."

Jumblatt's letter came amid news reports on Friday that the PSP chief would send a positive message to Hizbullah during a mass rally on Saturday to commemorate the forth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's murder.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is expected to deliver a speech on Monday as his party commemorates the first anniversary of the assassination of its top military commander, Imad Moghnieh.