March 14 Protests Against Berri's Refusal to Open Parliament Doors

by **Admin** Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:49 pm

The March 14 Alliance has protested against what it called Speaker Nabih Berri's refusal to open parliament doors, accusing him of practicing "personal monopoly."

Continuous efforts to keep "parliament doors shut clearly and openly violate the constitution," and aim at "toppling the democratic system and hindering its institutions," the general secretariat of the bloc said in a statement Thursday.

Such efforts, the coalition said, also "contribute to the political and constitutional destruction plan" that serves the interests of the regimes in Damascus and Tehran at the expense of "the Lebanese interest and the path for independence."

The statement expressed the alliance's "determination to restore authority of the parliament secretariat" and curb Berri's attempts "to sum the powers of the parliament in himself."

The alliance will press ahead with its efforts "to re-launch parliamentary work" and "will take all necessary constitutional and political steps in this direction," March 14 pledged.

The statement came after Berri met two March 14 MPs Ayman Shuqair and Serge Torsarkissian to tackle the issue of reopening parliament doors which should have started its ordinary sessions mid March but failed to reach an agreement.