Consensus Cabinet minus Pre-conditions and Veto Power Attainable
Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said on Sunday that there are several formulas for forming a new cabinet, which may include giving President Michel Sleiman the deciding bloc in cabinet.
Speaking to New TV, Najjar said he expected Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to suggest giving the opposition a share in cabinet, but no obstructing third vote.
“Hariri will form the cabinet quickly. Many issues will depend on regional changes and there will be a role for the president to find solutions,” he said.
“One of the solutions might be to have ministers approved by the president, the majority and the minority at the same time,” he added.
Najjar said the opposition knows it cannot request the obstructing third vote because it lost the elections.
“The Doha Agreement is an exceptional one, whose constitutional effectiveness and feasibility ended,” he said, of the 2008 agreement that first legalized the controversial obstructing third vote.
“The constitution does not say that the government has to include the opposition. This is an invention,” he noted.
“Calling for consensus is one thing but putting conditions on the formation of an institutional opposition with the ability to obstruct decisions is another,” he said.
Najjar said a national unity cabinet means representation for the opposition, without necessitating an obstructing third vote. He called on all parties to form an effective cabinet and appoint ministers according to their merits.
In other matters, Najjar said the Secretary General of the Syrian-Lebanese Higher Council, Nasri Khoury, told him that the 23 Lebanese recently released from Syrian prisons were included on the current list of Lebanese prisoners in Syria that was provided by the Syrian government.
He said eight of the prisoners were released following a special amnesty was issued by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Najjar said that neither he nor Interior Minister Ziad Baroud has any information about the former prisoner’s current whereabouts. He added he has contacted different security personal to ask when they were released and why they have not been officially seen.
“Until now I have no answer and no official information about these individuals and their whereabouts,” he said.