The opposition government has rejected the cabinet lineup proposed by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.
Hariri presented his selections to President Suleiman, but it is probable that the president will not endorse it on the grounds that it does not have bipartisan support.
The crux of the dispute (between the Hariri-led March 14 coalition and the Hizballah-led March 8 ) was the fact that there were no negotiations on the proposal prior to Hariri handing it in to the president for approval.
It seems that the two sides have settled on the 15/10/5 allocation of the cabinet’s seats, where the majority controls 15 seats, the opposition controls 10, and the president controls the rest.
March 8 also took issue with Hariri deciding who would fill the seats in their allocation. One of the biggest objectors to this point is General Aoun, who wants the telecommunications seat for his party and he wants his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, to fill it.
Hariri had not given the seat to Bassi on the grounds that he did not win his seat in the parliamentary elections in June.
The recent events could cause Hariri to step down as prime minister, however he would most likely be reinstalled by the parliament, as his faction, March 14, controls the majority of seats.
It is unclear why Hariri would take this route, as he must have known that it would upset both Hizballah and General Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement.
Also, as previously stated, it is highly unlikely that the president would endorse Hariri’s plan, as it did not have support from both sides. It was clearly demonstated during the parliamnentary elections that Suleiman would not chose sides and support one faction over the other.
The president was elected by concensus and that is how he has tried to govern. Siding with Hariri now and attempting to force the opposition into some sort of plan that it was not comfortable with could have dire consequences for the future of Lebanon.
Saad Hariri knows all of this and it is unclear what he was trying to accomplish with such a plan.
