Govt. Formation Impasse ‘Won’t Protract’ as Franjieh Expected to ‘Visit Baabda’

All political parties want the new government to be formed soon and a visit by Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh to the Baabda Palace is expected to facilitate the formation process, a media report said on Sunday.

Franjieh’s visit to the Baabda Palace will happen soon “because it serves the interests of both parties,” An Nahar newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying.

“All political parties now agree that the government must be formed quickly and the gap among these forces regarding the new electoral law has been largely bridged, which indicates that there will be an imminent agreement,” the sources added.

“Announcements by the Lebanese Forces, the Progressive Socialist Party and al-Mustaqbal Movement that they are clinging to the hybrid law have created relief, seeing as it indicates that these parties, especially the Christian force, do not want to keep the 1960 law,” the sources explained.

“The hybrid law satisfies the camp that has proposed it as well as the rest of the parties who are looking forward to a law based on proportional representation, because it would preserve the proportional representation element to a satisfactory extent,” the sources went on to say.

Accordingly, the cabinet formation process “will not protract,” the sources said, noting that the government will be formed soon and its policy statement “will be finalized quickly based on the principles that were mentioned in the oath of office” of President Michel Aoun, the sources said.

The political forces would then focus on the electoral law in order to reach an agreement that allows holding the 2017 polls under a new law, the sources added.