Report: Differing Views on Seats Count in Adib’s Govt.
Prime Minister designate Mustafa Adib continues consultations to form a “small government of experts” capable of introducing much-needed reforms as demanded by France, amid reports that President Michel Aoun requested one with more ministerial portfolios, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday.
Adib sifts through the outcome of ideas and consultations with parliamentary blocs and senior leaders on the shape of the upcoming government. The outcome of talks could crystallize by the end of the week, the daily said.
The PM-designate reportedly inclines to form a "small" crisis government, but the “President's desire to form one with more ministerial seats took matters a step backward,” said the daily.
According to sources who spoke to Nidaa al Watan newspaper, during talks between the two men on Thursday, Aoun suggested “assigning a portfolio to each minister, which raises the government composition to 22 ministers. A ministerial portfolio would also be assigned to the PM.”
The last government resigned in the face of public anger over the August 4 explosion that killed at least 190, wounded thousands and laid waste to entire districts of the capital.
Government formation is usually a drawn-out process in multi-confessional Lebanon where a complex political system seeks to share power between different religious groups.
But the country's deadliest peacetime disaster has created intense pressure for swift reforms to lift it out of its worst economic crisis in decades.
Source: Naharnet
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