While he was reading his ministerial statement at Parliament on Monday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati was rushed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to cut the speech short.
“I believe our MP colleagues have been informed of this report within a sufficient period, so there’s no need for us to bother you and read all of it,” Berri told Mikati during the reading at the start of the parliamentary confidence voting session.
“Let us save time,” he added, citing the electricity problem that delayed the start of the session.
Parliament only secured a few hours of electricity for the confidence session, Berri noted before suggesting that the session moves on to parliamentary discussions of the government’s mission.
Consequently, PM Mikati jumped to the final section of his statement and read it out before stepping down from the podium, making way for the discussion to begin.
For context, the UNESCO Palace, the current headquarters of Lebanon’s Parliament, had experienced a power cut earlier on Monday.
The power loss delayed the session, which meant to give the new government the necessary vote of confidence, until a fuel truck was secured to supply the building with electricity.
The confidence session is ongoing at the time of writing. Most MPs had previously expressed their intention to grant the government their vote, which indicates that the government will receive the confidence vote today.
