March 8 Dismayed by Leak of Alleged Technocrat Cabinet Lineup
The March 8 forces on Friday voiced dismay after media reports said Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam intends to form a small, technocrat cabinet and after the names of its alleged members were leaked.
“Salam has not communicated with the March 8 forces since the end of consultations at al-Nejmeh Square,” NBN television reported.
Meanwhile, al-Manar television quoted Free Patriotic Movement sources as saying that “given the leaked information and the non-neutral candidates, this cabinet can be described as a 'cabinet of ghosts.'"
And as al-Manar said "Salam did suggest a 14-minister cabinet" during talks with President Michel Suleiman, it quoted Baabda sources as saying that "it's too early to approve a de facto cabinet line-up and the call for (national) dialogue will happen after forming a new cabinet."
"Discussions with Suleiman only tackled the cabinet's shape, which has not yet been decided, and we categorically deny the alleged leaks," Salam's sources told al-Manar.
Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, ex-Minister Jean Obeid, former Minister Ziad Baroud, Raed Sharafeddine, former MP Nasser Nasrallah, Bahij Abou Hamze, Nicolas Nahhas and Mohammed al-Mashnouq are among the names that are being considered for the new government, according to several local newspapers.
Change and Reform bloc MP Nabil Nicola criticized the leaked lineup during an interview on OTV.
“If technocrat means that the minister should be totally neutral, I think the political affiliation of some of the published names is very well-known,” Nicola said, in an indirect reference to Abou Hamze, who is close to Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat.
A war of words had erupted between Jumblat and the FPM after the Druze leader said he rejects reallocating the telecom and energy portfolios to FPM ministers in the new cabinet.
Salam was over the weekend tasked by Suleiman with forming the cabinet after he received the support of 124 out of 128 MPs in two days of binding consultations that the president held at Baabda palace.
The March 8 forces have called for forming a political, national unity cabinet while the March 14 forces have called for forming a neutral, technocrat cabinet. And while Salam has said that he is seeking a cabinet to oversee the parliamentary polls that does not contain MP hopefuls, Jumblat has reassured March 8 that he will not vote for a one-sided government.
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