Nabih Berri is re-elected as head of the Lebanese parliament for the seventh time

In the first session after the legislative elections on 15 May, the Lebanese Parliament re-elected the leader of the Shiite Amal party, Nabih Berri, as head of the House after thirty years in the post. 

The re-election was approved at the limit of the absolute majority, with 65 votes in favour, one more than the 128 legislators in Parliament. Nabih Berri's re-election was not entirely assured due to the loss of a majority in the House to the pro-Syrian March 8 Alliance, led by the Shi'a groups Amal and Hezbollah along with the Christian Free Patriotic Movement.

Several opponents took their seats for the first time in what is the most fragmented House and asked Berri, who presided over the chamber as the oldest, to read out the ballots that had been cast. Some of these included messages against the elite who had led Lebanon into the worst instability since the 1975-1990 civil war, which has plunged 80 per cent of the population into poverty.

Other ballots read "Justice for the Beirut explosion", referring to the explosion that left more than 200 people dead and whose investigation was closed by former high-ranking officials suspected of links to the case. Another ballot called for justice for Hezbollah activist Lokman Slim, who was shot dead in February 2021. As a result, a total of 40 ballots were annulled and another 23 were blank ballots, allowing for the renewal of Nabih Berri as Speaker of Parliament with a slim majority.

This election was conducted in accordance with the rules of procedure of the House and the Lebanese Constitution, which establishes that the head of the legislature is reserved for a Shia Muslim, while the presidency of the Republic is to be held by a Maronite Christian and the prime minister by a Sunni Muslim. For these reasons, and because almost all Shia MPs are affiliated with Amal or Hezbollah, there were few alternatives to Nabih Berri's presidency.

Berri is a particularly important figure in Lebanon as the head of the Lebanese Resistance Forces (Amal), which, together with Hezbollah, forms the so-called Shia duo. The Amal movement, like most Lebanese parties, played an important role in the civil war, engaging in battles with other parties, especially Christian and Palestinian factions. 

The octogenarian politician was born in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, in 1938, and graduated in law from the Lebanese University in 1963, completing his postgraduate studies in law at the Sorbonne University in Paris, where he worked as a lawyer. Finally, he began leading this political formation in 1980. In 1992 he was elected Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament for the first time, where he remains after his re-election.