By NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Lebanon’s caretaker government is under mounting pressure to hold by-elections to fill 10 vacancies in the country’s parliament caused by resignations and the recent deaths of two MPs from COVID-19. In recent months the parliament has lost 10 of its 128 members, raising doubts about legal issues in calculating the quorum, especially with regard to critical sessions, since there is an imbalance of the pact. Eight MPs submitted a collective resignation in protest against the corruption of the ruling authority after the Beirut port explosion. Three of the eight were Kataeb (Phalanges) MPs, while the others were either independent or had left their parliamentary blocs. Two MPs, Michel Murr and Jean Obeid, recently died from COVID-19 complications. The majority of the MPs who have left parliament are Christians, while one is Druze. Of the remaining 118 parliamentarians, 63 are Muslims and 55 Christian.

By-elections were supposed to take place within two months of parliament accepting the resignations of Marwan Hamadeh, Henri Helou, Paula Yacoubian, Nadim Gemayel, Samy Gemayel, Elias Hankach, Nehmeh Afram and Michel Moawad in the wake of the Beirut port blast. However, by-elections have not been held despite caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi signing a decree inviting electoral bodies to organize the polls. The caretaker government did not sign the decree, which led to a constitutional violation. However, with the deaths of the two MPs, there has been renewed talk of the need to hold by-elections to fill the vacant seats. Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri said this week that he hoped the by-elections could take place in the spring.

by By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton - voanews.com -- Families of those who died in last year's deadly explosion in Beirut protested for a second day Friday and denounced the removal of a judge leading the probe into the blast. The families released a statement saying that the appointment of a new judge would lead to a delay in the probe of the August 4 port explosion, caused by the detonation of a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate at the port. "On the ill-fated date of February 18, the sound of criminal corruption echoed and its hero this time was the politicized judiciary in Lebanon," Ibrahim Hoteit, the families' spokesman, read at the protest near the justice ministry. Hoteit's brother Tharwat was killed in the explosion, which leveled large parts of Beirut, killed more than 200 people and wounded more than 6,000. The court decision Thursday to replace Judge Fadi Sawan blew up "what remains of conscience and confidence between us and this rotten judiciary," Hoteit said. Judge Tarek Bitar was appointed Friday by Lebanon's justice minister to lead the investigation. Relatives of victims of Beirut port explosion burn tires during a protest, after a Lebanese court removed the judge leading the probe in the investigation.

by dailystar.com.lb — BEIRUT: Lebanon is set to hold parliamentary by-elections for 10 vacant seats by the end of March, a statement …

by naharnet.com — Bkirki on Thursday criticized Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who rejected the Patriarch’s calls for a U.N. resolution under …