Jumblat Suggests Giving Veto Power to March 8 and 14 to Resolve Cabinet Stalemate

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has dropped his support for a new cabinet in which each of the main political camps would get eight ministers, saying the 9-9-6 formula gives the formation of a government a better chance.

In an interview with As Safir newspaper published on Friday, Jumblat said giving the March 8 and 14 alliances nine ministers each and the centrists six ministers would be the best solution.

“It prevents a certain party from controlling the government by giving veto power to Hizbullah and its team and another veto power to March 14,” he said.

Jumblat denied that he was the first to propose this formula, saying Speaker Nabih Berri had come up with the idea before him to resolve the cabinet crisis.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam has been trying since April to come up with a cabinet line-up but he has blamed conditions and counter-conditions set by the rival parties on the failure to form his government.

The PSP chief, who is also the head of the National Struggle Front parliamentary bloc, rejected a “fait accompli” government, describing it as a cabinet that challenges Shiites.

The resigned government of caretaker Premier Najib Miqati can rule better than any cabinet that is unconstitutional, and which does not include Hizbullah and Amal representatives, he said.

On another crisis that could grip the country in 2014, Jumblat shied away from saying that he expected a vacuum in the presidency, stressing that the country was managing its affairs despite the vacuum in different constitutional institutions.

He stressed that the next president should be “consensual” and “should not belong to either the March 8 or 14” alliances.

The MP admitted that he played a role as a centrist in the presidential election, but said he could not take any step without an understanding with Hizbullah and Berri, who is the head of the Amal movement.

But Jumblat rejected the extension of President Michel Suleiman's mandate, which expires in May next year, and preferred bringing a person from outside the military to the top post.

“Wouldn't it be better for him not to be a military man?” he wondered, when asked about the nomination of a personality from the army.

He also refused electing the new president by simple majority, saying such a move would harm the Christians.