By Paul Astih – english.aawsat.com

Beirut- Hopes on the formation of the Lebanese government before
Christmas and the New Year began fading after the emergence of a series
of new obstacles. According to informed sources, several problems, which are hard to
overcome, emerged in the past few days, bringing Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s efforts to form the cabinet into a
standstill.

Among those obstacles is the insistence of the two main Shi’ite
parties – Hezbollah and Amal Movement – on the formation of a 30-member
cabinet. Such a request would bring back consultations to square one
because they will require a new distribution of portfolios on the
different political parties, said the sources.

Other obstacles include the rejection of some political parties to be
allocated minister of state posts, they told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

Such problems led to concerns at the Center House (Hariri’s residence
in downtown Beirut) that the March 8 alliance and their ally President
Michel Aoun would try to impose a deal on an electoral draft-law based
on full proportional representation in return for facilitating the
formation of the government.

But a law based fully on proportionality is totally rejected by Hariri’s Future Movement.

Future MP Jean Oghassabian stressed in remarks to a local radio
station that the proportionality draft law would not be approved by the
parliament, saying there can’t be full proportional representation as
long as certain areas in the country are not fully under the control of
the state.

“Such a law would take the country to more paralysis. There will be a
problem on June 20 – the end of the parliament’s term – if we reject
the extension of its tenure and the so-called 1960 law” that has
governed previous elections.

Another Future MP, Mohammed al-Hajjar, did not rule out the
possibility of some parties trying to link the cabinet formation to a
deal on the proportional representation electoral draft-law.

The Future Movement rejects such a law amid the presence of
illegitimate arms that stop the state from exercising sovereignty on all
its territories, he said.

Lebanese parties have been divided between adopting a proportional
vote law or a hybrid electoral law that includes aspects of the
proportional and the current 1960 winner-take-all systems.