Hasan Lakkis| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri was reported Wednesday to have voiced support for Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s push to change the Cabinet’s decision-making mechanism adopted since the presidency became vacant in favor of a voting mechanism.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary Future bloc warned of dire consequences of the continued presidential vacuum, now in its ninth month, and called on the rival factions to cooperate over the election of a president.
Berri backs Salam’s proposal to change the current mechanism governing the Cabinet’s work, according to a number of lawmakers who saw the speaker during his weekly meeting with MPs at his Ain al-Tineh residence.
In the absence of a president, a proposal to open an extraordinary session for Parliament to approve several important draft laws requires a decree to be signed by all 24 ministers. Thus, this matter becomes highly unlikely with the mechanism in force that requires unanimous backing from the 24 ministers.
Berri is expected to meet Salam soon to discuss the Cabinet’s decision-making mechanism and the issue of opening an extraordinary Parliament session.
The speaker had expressed reservations in the past over the Cabinet’s current mechanism, which requires unanimous support from the 24 ministers on its decisions and its issuance of decrees on behalf of the president.
While most Cabinet ministers have voiced support for the change in the Cabinet’s decision-making mechanism, the three ministers loyal to former President Michel Sleiman oppose it and the three Kataeb Party ministers have expressed reservations.
Salam is making contacts in an attempt to secure consensus among the Cabinet parties to replace the current mechanism with a constitutional voting mechanism, political sources told The Daily Star.
In line with the Constitution, the president’s powers were transferred to the Cabinet when the presidential vacuum began last May.
Cabinet parties agreed that starting that date, all Cabinet decisions should win unanimous support from the 24 ministers. Cabinet decrees should also be signed by all of the ministers.
According to the Constitution, the Cabinet convenes with a two-thirds quorum and its decisions are made by consensus. In case consensus is hard to achieve, regular draft laws are passed with a simple majority vote and crucial decisions need to be approved by two-thirds of the government’s members.
The new mechanism, which allows every single minister to veto any decision, has significantly hindered the work of the government, which has been unable to make unanimous decisions on crucial issues over the past few months due to internal disagreements.
Meanwhile, the Future bloc warned of the negative repercussions of the presidential deadlock and urged the March 8 and March 14 parties to cooperate to agree on the election of a new president.
“The big and aggravating dangers entailed by the continued vacancy in the presidency post lead to worsening the direct and indirect losses endured by the country every day, draining the achievements and successes made by the Lebanese people with a lot of blood and sacrifices,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting chaired by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
It lamented that Lebanon Monday celebrated Mar Maroun Day, the saint of the Maronite community, in the absence of a Maronite president.
In a clear reference to MP Michel Aoun’s bloc, Hezbollah’s bloc and its March 8 allies, who have thwarted a quorum to elect a president with their consistent boycott of Parliament sessions in the past eight months, the statement urged “all political parties, namely the parties that are still obstructing the election process, to cooperate to overcome this impasse quickly and agree on the election of a new president.”
In discussing the dialogue sessions with Hezbollah, the bloc voiced its support for the steps taken last week by removing political slogans and banners in some areas in Beirut, Sidon and Tripoli, saying the move should cover “all Lebanese areas in the hope that this would help in reducing tensions in the country.”
Separately, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said Jordan’s King Abdullah II was ready to assist Lebanon in finding a solution to the presidential vacuum. “His majesty the king has expressed his readiness to help in the Lebanese presidential election issue through his international contacts and his expected tour of European states,” Machnouk said after meeting Abdullah in Amman.