Back in November 2019, a lot of Sulta sympathizers were blaming protesters for blocking the parliament entrances, claiming that they’re preventing lawmakers from doing what’s needed to pass laws and help save the country. Fast forward to April 2020, the parliament has finally convened in UNESCO and surprise surprise! They failed to pass any significant law and, wait for it, voted AGAINST a law that banned the display of posters of leaders, officials and employees in public places.
When demonstrators gathered around the entrance of Nejmeh square, their demands were clear: This parliament does not represent the aspirations of Lebanon’s Revolution, and is not serious about its reforms, and that’s exactly what the Speaker of the House & MPs proved in the last two days.
Three important bills, one for lifting the immunity of ministers, one for suspending works at the Bisri dam project and another for shortening the current term of parliament were sent to be re-evaluated by parliamentary committees, instead of allocating some time to finalize them, especially the one related to lifting immunity and banking secrecy.
Added to that, quorum was LOST during a debate on a LBP 1,200 billion social aid plan aimed at helping farmers, industrialists and craftsmen, for importing raw material and for offering subsidized loans to small and medium enterprises. The worst part is that we could not tell who voted on what because they’re not using the electronic voting yet and voting was not really a public one. In fact, if you were to hear Kobeissi below, the whole thing was a fiasco.