The 2022 Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament election was an election to elect the speaker of the 24th Lebanese Parliament.[1] It was 7th legislative speaker election since the implementation of the Taif Agreement in 1989.
Nabih Berri won with 65 votes out of 128, the minimum needed for a majority and the lowest outcome in his 30-year tenure as the speaker of parliament.[2]
The 2022 general election was held in the wake of the revolution of 17 October 2019, a series of large-scale anti-government demonstrations against the stagnation of the economy, unemployment, Lebanon's sectarian and hereditary political system, corruption, and the government's inability to provide essential services such as water, electricity and sanitation.[3] Despite the ensuing resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri[4] and his replacement by Hassan Diab[5], the country's economic situation continued to deteriorate.
Compounding the crisis, on 4 August 2020, several thousand tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a hangar in the Port of Beirut exploded, killing 218, injuring over 7,000[6], leaving 300,000 homeless[7], and resulting in damages estimated at nearly four billion euros.
In the elections held on 15 May 2022, Hezbollah and its allies lost their parliamentary majority. Among the Christian community, anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces supplanted the Free Patriotic Movement as the largest party. The main Sunni party, the Future Movement, had withdrawn from the election, resulting in more fragmented representation for the community. Pro-reform groups that had emerged from the 2019 protests secured 13 seats.
Access to the parliamentary speakership is subject to an informal agreement known as the National Pact. Agreed in 1943, the latter limits this office only to members of the Shia Islam faith.[8]
Access to the deputy speakership is subject to an informal agreement known as the National Pact. Agreed in 1943, the latter limits this office only to members of the Greek Orthodoxy faith.[8]
The 2 secretaries of parliament were elected immediately after the Deputy Speaker. Although not constitutionally required, it was decided that the secretaries would be attributed to one Maronite Christian and one Druze.
The election process of the 2 deputies had large debate particularly by opposition MPs. It was suggested that each MP votes for both preferences in the same ballot. However, it was decided that voting would take place on the basis of one name per ballot.[14] As a result of this Firas Hamdan, an opposition MP, who was one of few candidates for the Druze secretary, withdrew his candidacy in protest of the sectarian electoral procedure.[14]
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