Miqati to Run for Elections, Appreciates Saudi Will to Nominate him for Premiership
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miaqati expressed gratitude to Saudi Arabia for its willingness to nominate him to form the new cabinet, assuring that he will run for the 2013 parliamentary elections, al-Akhbar daily quoted him as saying.
“Saudi Arabia wanted to name me to form the new cabinet, but (ex-PM Saad) Hariri declined,” he told the paper in an interview on Saturday, adding that he will run for the upcoming polls, but is currently waiting for an electoral law to be approved and adopted.
The rival parties have so far failed to agree on an electoral draft-law after the leaders and representatives of the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Phalange Party and the Marada Movement agreed to suspend the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal on Monday, leaving the door open for rival MPs to strike a deal on a new electoral draft-law.
The proposal, which had been severely rejected by centrist Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat's bloc, considers Lebanon a single district and allows each sect to vote for its own MPs under a proportional presentational system.
Miqati, where the majority of his cabinet was represented by the March 8 alliance, denounced reports that he failed to rule properly during his tenure in order not to provoke his opponents.
“Governing is based on balance, that is why I played the role of the al-Mustaqbal Movement and the March 14 alliance in the cabinet. If the majority of the government was of the March 14 I would have taken the role of March 8 to achieve equilibrium,” he pointed out.
The resignation of Miqati in March came hours after President Michel Suleiman suspended cabinet sessions for failing to pass a decision on the formation of an elections committee to supervise the upcoming parliamentary polls.
The caretaker PM said he is proud of the cabinet's achievements, blaming the situation in Lebanon and the region for delaying further accomplishments.
Miqati's cabinet was formed in 2011, with the March 8 alliance as the majority, after the national unity government of al-Mustaqbal movement leader Hariri was toppled.
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