Salam Seeks Consensus to Form Cabinet amid Critical Stage

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam said on Tuesday that consensus among the rival parties on the formation of his cabinet is crucial to overcome a delicate stage that includes holding the parliamentary elections.

“The mission of my cabinet will be supervising the polls... The suitable solution is to form a cabinet that none of its members will run for the elections,” Salam said in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.

He pointed out that his government should be formed swiftly, noting that he will withdraw if the rival parties failed to reach consensus and the term of the current parliament was extended.

“I was appointed for one mission to supervise the polls, I wasn't named to obstruct it or form a political cabinet,” Salam said.

The Beirut MP told the newspaper that he is not seeking the post but to save the country from the impasse, saying: “I am not holding on to power.”

Salam called on the rival March 14 and 8 parties to reach common ground over the nature of the cabinet.

Salam, a 67-year-old moderate, was named on Saturday as Lebanon's new prime minister, pledging in his first address to the nation to safeguard the country.

His appointment came two weeks after Najib Miqati resigned on March 22.

Salam pledged to work with all groups across Lebanon's political spectrum, which is split into pro- and anti-Damascus camps.

His nomination is expected to help ease a political crisis that has gripped Lebanon since the Syria conflict erupted more than two years ago.

Although Salam's nomination was backed by 124 MPs out of 128, he faces the difficult challenge of forming a government.

Asked if he expects any obstacles to hinder the formation of his cabinet, such as the ministerial statement, the PM-designate said that “the only obstacle is the mechanism that should be adopted to supervise the elections.”

Salam described himself as “moderate and liberal.”

“No one will be able to set conditions on me,” he said.

On the new electoral law, Salam said that the political parties should agree on a draft-law that he will seek to implement.

“Consensus isn't far, in particular, over the hybrid electoral law after they agree on the number of districts and the distribution of votes between the winner-takes all and proportional system,” he added.

The rival parties have so far failed to agree on an electoral draft-law after the leaders and representatives of the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Phalange Party and the Marada Movement agreed to suspend the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal last week, leaving the door open for rival MPs to strike a deal on a new electoral draft-law.

The proposal, which had been severely rejected by centrist Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat's bloc, considers Lebanon a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional presentational system.