Change and Reform Hints Suleiman, Salam Seeking Cabinet of 'Ghosts'

MP Ibrahim Kanaan from the Change and Reform bloc accused on Friday President Michel Suleiman and PM-designate Tammam Salam without naming them of seeking to form a government of “ghosts.”

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5), Kanaan said: “There are procedures to form the government in a parliamentary democratic system.”

“I have never heard of a constitution in which a government is formed by two people no matter what their posts are by disregarding the opinions of parliamentary blocs,” he added.

Kanaan, who is a member of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun's bloc, seemed to be referring to Suleiman and Salam.

Media reports said the president and PM-designate have reached an agreement to form a small homogeneous cabinet whose members are not candidates for the parliamentary polls and are capable of overseeing the upcoming elections.

The Change and Reform bloc along with its allies Hizbullah and Amal in the March 8 coalition have called for the formation of a national unity cabinet.

“The names that are being considered as candidates (in the new cabinet) indicate that we are confronting a government of ghosts,” Kanaan mocked.

An Nahar daily published on Friday the names of several candidates, the majority of whom are not major political figures despite as Kanaan said having political affiliations.

Turning his criticism to National Struggle Front chief MP Walid Jumblat, Kanaan said that the lawmaker cannot impose the 1960 law on the Lebanese.

Jumblat's bloc has been seen as the major obstacle to the failure of the rival parties to adopt a new electoral law.

“We don't want the 1960 law and there is consensus on its rejection,” Kanaan said.

The law that was adopted in the 2009 elections considers the qada an electoral district and is based on the winner-takes-all system.