Report: Critique Emerge over President’s ‘Parallel’ Govt Format

Criticisms arose after the presidency’s announcement that a complete government proposal was submitted by the President to the PM-designate during the latter’s visit to Baabda to submit his cabinet line-up, media reports said Thursday.

Parliamentary sources described to Nidaa al-Watan newspaper President Michel Aoun’s move as a “heresy,” and a “violation” of the Taef Accord.

Aoun has made an “unprecedented” move “fragmenting the Taef Accord through a heresy of presenting a ministerial formation corresponding to a cabinet format presented by the PM-designate,” Saad Hariri, the sources told the newspaper.

They added that “based on the logic of constitutional partnership in the formation process, the president can consult, give remarks or even reject a cabinet format presented by the PM-designate, but has no right to present a parallel line-up.”

Other sources said the President's move “risks raising sectarian differences against the background of tampering with the jurisdictions of the premiership.”

On Wednesday, the Presidency said Aoun received a "full cabinet line-up" from Hariri during their meeting in Baabda, and “Aoun in turn handed Hariri a complete governmental proposal including a distribution of portfolios according to clear principles.”

The sources pointed to “massive resentment” on part of the former prime ministers, noting that the higher Sunni authority at Dar el-Fatwa could step in in denunciation.

The Presidency said that the two men “agreed to study the submitted proposals and continue consultations to address the differences between these proposals."