Opposition Blocks Administrative Appointments
Cabinet has failed to approve key administrative appointments as President Michel Suleiman”s first use of his constitutional right to call for voting on the issue faced the two-thirds obstacle.
None of the candidates for first grade civil posts received two-thirds of votes on Wednesday during the cabinet session held at Baabda Palace.
An Nahar daily on Thursday quoted informed ministerial sources as saying that the objection of opposition ministers was not based on the names proposed for the posts but only on their insistence to make the appointments on the basis of a single package.
The session was expected to see the appointment of the governors of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, in addition to the political affairs director at the interior ministry.
When Suleiman asked the ministers to vote on the issue, Beirut governor candidate Nicolas Habr received 15 votes, while Mount Lebanon”s candidate Omar Yassin received 16 votes and retired Brig. Hussein Laqqis, the candidate for the interior ministry”s directorate, received only three votes.
Industry Minister Ghazi Zoaiter walked out at the beginning of the session, saying he would have preferred that the issue of the administrative appointments be discussed within a full basket that would include the state budget and the constitutional council.