Amid reports that a breakthrough has been made on the formation of a new Lebanese government, parties still have to decide whether it will be composed of 18 or 24 ministers and whether figures of the previous government are set to take seats in the new cabinet, the Saudi Ashaq al-Awsat reported on Friday.

Ex-PM and Tripoli MP Najib Miqati on Thursday announced that his four-member parliamentary bloc had decided to vote for caretaker PM Saad Hariri in the binding parliamentary consultations to name a new premier.

Hariri should “continue the mission that he has been leading since the presidential settlement three years ago, because we are not in a period that allows experiments,” Miqati said in an interview with Al-Arabiya’s al-Hadath television.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday noted that the proposed techno-political government is “nothing but a one-sided government.”

“The techno-political government that the ruling forces are proposing today is nothing but a one-sided government, seeing as its technocrats are mere fronts for the same political forces who have pushed people inside and outside Lebanon to lose confidence in the country,” Geagea said after a meeting for the Strong Republic bloc.

MP Nadim Gemayel of the Kataeb Party on Thursday announced that he will boycott the binding parliamentary consultations for naming a PM-designate that have been scheduled for Monday.

“Since the beginning of the revolution, I have witnessed with all Lebanese how much officials, topped by the president of the republic, have failed to truly heed the demands and spirit of the revolution,” Gemayel tweeted.

President Michel Aoun on Thursday hoped the new government “will be formed as soon as possible so that it starts addressing the problems that need urgent care and attention.”

Aoun added that the new government should “restore confidence between the state and citizens.”

Heavy rainfall flooded many of Lebanon’s badly maintained roads, stranding citizens in their cars and adding misery and suffering to their daily life conditions amid a burgeoning economic crisis unprecedented in the country’s history.

Most of the roads have been rendered impassable by heavy rain. Several roads south of the capital mainly in Jiyeh, al-Naameh and Khaldeh all the way to the airport road were flooding with water. Cars were seen washed away.

Suicide deaths are rising in Lebanon as the country grapples with an unprecedented economic crisis raising suicide deaths to three on Thursday.

Setting a date for the binding parliamentary consultations has not appeased protests against corruption and mismanagement in Lebanon as protesters blocked several roads and closed schools on Thursday keeping up the flame of 50 days of protests that witnessed suicides linked to a deteriorating economic crisis.

In a stark reflection of the deepening economic crisis in Lebanon, a man in his 40s shot himself to death Wednesday with a bird rifle when he became despondent over salary cuts in recent weeks, according to his family.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Wednesday described the Presidency’s call for binding parliamentary consultations to name a PM-designate as a “new dawn” for Lebanon.

“Today I want to talk about a delightful thing and a saddening thing. The delightful development is that the Presidency has announced that the consultations will begin on Monday, and this means that Lebanon will witness a new dawn,” al-Rahi said during a prayer in Bkirki.