Cabinet to resume sessions next week: report

BEIRUT: Cabinet is expected to resume work next week following a temporary suspension, as former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Speaker Nabih Berri discuss ways of ending Cabinet’s ongoing deadlock, Al-Mustaqbal said Sunday.

In a report published Sunday, Al-Mustaqbal quoted ministerial sources as saying that Cabinet is expected to resume its work Thursday, a week after Prime Minister Tammam Salam vowed not to hold any more sessions until an agreement over the decision making mechanism was reached.

Cabinet did not convene last Thursday due to sharp disagreements over the decision-making mechanism in the government’s executive body.

Berri, who met with the former premier Friday, said that both the Amal Movement and the Future Movement supported the simple majority vote system outlined in the Constitution to end the Cabinet deadlock, according to a seperate Al-Mustaqbal report.

Berri, who described his Friday meeting with Hariri was “excellent,” noted that talks also focused on preserving national interests and the election of a president.

When Former President Michel Sleiman left office last May, the Cabinet adopted a system which requires unanimous backing among all 24 ministers to approve decisions.

The current system, not stipulated in the Constitution, allows any minister to veto a decision which has led to a political deadlock in Cabinet.

Article 65 of the Lebanese Constitution states that decisions must be made unanimously in Cabinet. However, in cases where a consensus cannot be reached, the Constitution requires a simple majority vote.

In exceptional cases, a Cabinet decision would require the approval of two-thirds of all 24 ministers and not just those in attendance.

The Constitution defines exceptional cases as the following: “The amendment of the constitution, the declaration of a state of emergency and its termination, war and peace, general mobilization, international [conventions], long-term comprehensive development plans, the appointment of employees of grade one and its equivalent, the reconsideration of the administrative divisions, the dissolution of the [Parliament], electoral laws, nationality laws, personal status laws, and the dismissal of ministers.”