Discrepancy between Majority, Opposition on Cabinet Formula Widens
Heavy contacts are currently underway between majority parties from one side and the opposition on the other ahead of the consultations that PM-designate Saad Hariri will launch with parliamentary blocs upon his return from Saudi Arabia.
Discrepancy between the majority and the opposition”s points of view on the next cabinet was clear on Saturday, with pro-Hariri forces calling for a change and deflection from the 15-10-5 formula while minority figures insisting on keeping the same formula that the Lebanese had agreed on during Hariri”s first appointment.
Hizbullah MP Mohammed Raad told As Safir that during the consultations on Thursday his party would express its point of view that only a national unity cabinet would help end the current crisis.
Speaker Nabih Berri”s political assistant, MP Ali Hassan Khalil, also stressed to the newspaper that the opposition is clinging onto the 15-10-5 formula. He said a "serious and responsible dialogue leads to the formation of a government."
Another opposition member, Change and Reform bloc MP Alain Aoun said: "Our demands are by now clear and we insist on them. But we will go (to the consultations) to hear (what Hariri has to say)."
"The ball is now in Hariri”s court," Aoun told As Safir.
Furthermore, a source from MP Suleiman Franjieh”s bloc stressed on the need to form a unity cabinet based on the 15-10-5 formula and urged Hariri not to play the "procrastination game."
On the other hand, a source close to Hariri said the Mustaqbal movement bloc will head to the consultations "with the same spirit of the previous consultations."
"It is now necessary to discuss new cabinet formulas," the source said, accusing the opposition of thwarting the formation of the government during Hariri”s first nomination and of toppling the 15-10-5 formula.
He reiterated the majority”s stance that officials who had lost the parliamentary elections should not be given cabinet portfolios.
As Safir also carried a remark by Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan, who said the LF will suggest to Hariri the formation of a technocrat government or a cabinet of top officials with the priority of previously agreeing on essential issues, such as the policy statement.
He said the LF should get two cabinet seats and that Hariri”s first lineup wasn”t satisfactory.
A top Phalange official, meanwhile, said the party will hold a meeting in the next few hours to decide on its suggestion to Hariri during Thursday”s consultations.
He also stressed that the Phalange should get two portfolios.