By Paul Astih

Beirut- The workshop launched by the nominated Prime Minister Saad
al-Hariri to compose his upcoming cabinet has resembled many other
workshops launched by other nominated Prime Ministers who worked on
distributing quotas and ministerial portfolios based on sects, and
political and partisan belonging. However, Hariri’s mission may be the
hardest from years, because Lebanese political parties have raced to
partake in the rule, months before the next parliamentary elections,
aiming at taking advantage of their ministerial portfolios to draw
voters in May.

Hariri’s mission was more complicated with the coming apart of 8 and
14 March blocks and the failure of alliances composed in 2005 after the
assassination of the Former Prime Minister Rafic Al-Hariri. Meanwhile, the young Hariri cannot distribute ministries based on
political blocks anymore, but he is obliged to deal with each party as
an independent political team.

The upcoming Hariri cabinet, which is expected to see the light soon,
is the 74th cabinet in Lebanon since the independence on 1948, and the
seventh since 2015. Probably, it will be a “national unity” cabinet,
which means it will comprise all the political forces just like his
previous 30-minister government in 2009.

Cabinets of “majorities” and “national unity”

A proposal by Sami Geagea backed by Minister Boutros Harb, in which
they encouraged on composing a cabinet that includes the majority of the
ruling team and excludes the opposition has not been accepted by many
political parties, mainly the Prime Minister and the President; they
considered that the National Unity Government will offer a momentum to
the new era.

From 1992 to 2004, the Lebanese cabinets, which were presided by the
Late Rafic Hariri, often comprised the ruling majority. In this context,
the former Kataeb member and Minister Karim Pakradouni told Asharq
Al-Awsat that back then, cabinets never resigned before reaching the
required agreement to compose the new government, which seemed adopted
as a base. He added that since the assassination of Hariri (father), the
forming if cabinets took longer.
Pakradouni considered that the National Unity Government in Lebanon is a
must amid the wars and bloody conflicts dominating the region.

Rachid Karami’s records

It is worth mentioning that Lebanon has been ruled by 25 Prime
Ministers since 1943. Rachid Karami was the youngest nominee to compose a
cabinet; he was 34 years old when he headed his first government in the
Era of President Kamil Chamoun; Saaad Hariri is considered the second
younger nominee.

Karami has topped the list of prime minister given that he composed
ten cabinets from 1955 to 1984, followed by PM Abdullah Al-Yafi with
nine governments.

Shortest cabinets

The government composed by Yafi on 12 October 1968 during the rule of
President Charles Helou has been considered the shortest-term cabinet
in Lebanon’s history because it survived for eight days only to resign
on 20 October.
However, the longest-survivng cabinet was composed by Karami on 30 April
1984. He headed it for 37 months till his assassination on the first of
June 1987.

Assassinated PMs

It is worth noting that three of Lebanon’s prime ministers were
assassinated: Riyad Al-Solh, who was shot in Amman on 16 July 1951;
Rashi Karami, who was assassinated through a bomb in his helicopter on 1
June 1987; and Rafic Hariri, who was also bombed in Beirut on 14 March
2005.

Absence of Technocrats

In spite that “Technocrat Governments” have always been discussed
before the composition of all Lebanese cabinets, yet they have never
been adopted over the past years. According to Nahla al-Shahal,
researcher in the political sociology, the Lebanese system, based on
Quotas has always absented the option of technocrat.

On another hand, the ministerial statement of post-2005 governments
has always represented a major challenge amid the insistence of the
so-called Hezbollah on justifying and legitimating its existence and
role. Observers have suggested that the upcoming Hariri government will
adopt the same format based on the presidential speech of President
Michel Aoun, who insisted on the Lebanese right of resistance facing the
Israeli enemy.