The new Lebanon government won the vote of confidence in the Parliament on Monday in a session marred by a power cut and a broken generator. Due to this, the session got delayed for almost an hour.

The electricity outage in the Parliament during a vote of confidence underscored the multiple crises roiling the small Mediterranean nation amid an unprecedented economic meltdown, including a fuel shortage that has paralysed the country.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government, which was formed earlier this month after more than a year of bickering among politicians as the crisis worsened, won votes from the majority of parliament members present in the 128-member legislature.

The vote paves the way for his Cabinet to try and tackle the country’s devastating economic and financial crisis that has impoverished more than half the population within months and left the national currency in freefall, driving inflation to previously unseen levels.

“From the heart of the suffering of Beirut, our government has emerged to light a candle in this darkness,” the Associated Press quoted Mikati as addressing lawmakers at the session.

Mikati pledged to get to work immediately to halt the collapse of the economy and ease the day-to-day suffering of the Lebanese.

“What happened here today with the electricity outage pales in comparison to what the Lebanese people have been suffering for months,” Mikati added.

Mikati is returning to the post of prime minister for the third time and is widely seen as part of Lebanon’s post-civil war ruling elite that enriched themselves while doing little to develop the country.

Monday’s parliament session was being held at a Beirut theater known as the UNESCO palace so that parliament members could observe social distancing measures imposed over the coronavirus pandemic.

Lawmakers who sweated as they stood outside the venue waiting for the electricity issue to be resolved, derided the outage as emblematic of Lebanon’s problems.

(With inputs from the Associated Press)