Miqati's Govt. Wins Confidence Vote after Opposition MPs Walk Out
Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s government on Thursday won a vote of confidence in parliament, after opposition MPs walked out en masse moments before the vote.
Miqati's government secured 68 out of a possible 128 votes in parliament, where Hizbullah and its allies hold a slight majority.
During the vote, opposition MPs Robert Ghanem and Imad al-Hout remained in the parliament hall but abstained from voting.
Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan, who is a member of the parliamentary majority, did not attend the session.
Arslan had resigned as state minister from Miqati’s cabinet hours after its line-up was announced in protest at the fact that he was not granted a key portfolio.
Meanwhile, MPs Nicolas Fattoush and Michel Murr, who were allied with the opposition during the 2009 parliamentary elections, granted the government their votes of confidence.
"The government confirms it will continue the path of the (Special) Tribunal (for Lebanon) ... and continue to cooperate in this regard as per the U.N. Security Council Resolution which set up the tribunal to see justice served," Miqati said ahead of the vote.
Last week, the U.N.-backed STL issued an indictment in the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri and ordered the arrest of four Hizbullah members over the murder.
Commenting on the opposition’s walkout ahead of the vote, Speaker Nabih Berri said: “It is their democratic right if this is their choice.”
Asked by an MTV reporter after their walkout of the session whether they were satisfied with the premier’s response to their speeches, opposition MPs said Miqati’s statement was “unconvincing.”
“This is democracy and what’s important is that we have gained the confidence” of the parliament, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat, for his part, said after the session.
Thursday's vote capped three days of parliamentary talks on the government's Policy Statement, which had triggered a heated debate between the majority and the opposition, led by former premier Saad Hariri.
Hariri did not attend Thursday's session.
Miqati's policy statement includes an ambiguously worded clause stipulating that Lebanon will "respect" international resolutions as long as they do not threaten peace and stability.
But the opposition had demanded he state his government was "committed" to the U.N.-backed STL.
The Netherlands-based court has for years been at the center of an intractable political feud in Lebanon.
"I am following my conscience, my ethics, my loyalty to (slain) prime minister Rafik Hariri," Miqati said when interrupted by a member of the opposition, prompting a round of applause from the audience.
Miqati was appointed prime minister on January 25 with the blessing of Hizbullah.
After five months of wrangling, Miqati announced the formation of a 30-seat government in which Hizbullah and its allies control 18 seats, including the key justice and telecommunications ministries.
The Hizbullah-led alliance on January 12 pulled its ministers from Saad Hariri's unity government when he refused to end all cooperation with the STL, forcing its collapse.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has slammed the STL as a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy and last week said he doubted the four Hizbullah members wanted by the court would ever be found.
Among the four is Mustafa Badreddine, brother-in-law of top Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in a 2008 explosion in Damascus.
Badreddine is suspected of having masterminded the February 14, 2005 Beirut bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others.
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