Cabinet Names Constitutional Council Members amid LF, Marada Objections

The Cabinet on Thursday appointed five new members on the country’s Constitutional Council, amid the objections of the ministers of the Lebanese Forces and the Marada Movement.

The LF objected after the Cabinet did not endorse its candidate, Saeed Malek.

“We are against what happened and the names were not raised in advance with us regarding the Constitutional Council,” Social Affairs Minister Rochard Kouyoumjian of the LF said, lamenting what he called “the absence of ethics in politics.”

Information Minister Jamal al-Jarrah meanwhile announced that the agenda was largely approved except for a few items, identifying the candidates named as Constitutional Council members as Omar Hamzeh, Fawzat Khalil Farhat, Elias Bou Eid, Elias Mashraqani and Abdullah al-Shami.

As for the report that will be issued Friday by Standard & Poor’s, the minister confirmed that the agency will keep Lebanon’s credit rating at its current level of B-, noting that the government will take measures to preserve the economic and financial situations.

The government also agreed to appropriate a land lot in the Dinniyeh town of al-Hawakir in order to set up a garbage landfill for the North district.

It also decided to form a ministerial panel headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri to study the situations of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon following the latest controversy over work permits.

President Michel Aoun and Hariri had discussed the developments in a closed-door meeting before the session.

The session had 46 items on its agenda in addition to emergency items.