Karami returns to parliament as wins of Fanj, Salloum annulled

The Constitutional Council on Thursday annulled the parliamentary membership of Rami Fanj (Tripoli, Sunni) and Firas al-Salloum, declaring the win of Faisal Karami (Tripoli, Sunni) and Haidar Nasser (Tripoli, Alawite).

Karami is an ally of Hezbollah and the March 8 camp while Fanj was a member of the 13-MP Change bloc. Nasser meanwhile was a member of Fanj’s electoral list.

Constitutional Council chief Tannous Meshleb told al-Jadeed TV that the Council re-counted votes from nearly 50 polling stations.

“The lead between Rami Fanj’s list and the other list was nominal and when the votes we re-counted the results changed,” Meshleb added.

He also revealed that the rulings in the appeals filed over the electoral results in Metn and Akkar might be declared in two weeks.

Karami for his part told al-Jadeed that the proposals of the Change MPs are similar to his aspirations.

“A lot of work awaits us, especially that we are in a state of presidential and governmental vacuum, and a president cannot be elected without consensus and dialogue,” he added.

Salloum meanwhile offered congratulations to Nasser and said he trusts the Constitutional Council but he noted that he was hoping that the Council would “re-count the votes of all polling stations.”