The long process of forming a new Lebanese government is again encountering a new hurdle with the demand of the Alawite minority, represented by two deputies in parliament, to have a ministerial seat.
Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri rejects such a demand, for two reasons, according to sources in the Future Movement.
The first is his refusal to “introduce a new custom that enshrines the representation of minorities in the government.”
Second, he disapproves the formation of an expanded cabinet of 32 ministries, which would “give political forces the appetite for enlarging the scope of the procedural power in later stages.”
The emerging demand comes in parallel with street movements, as young men from the Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen (predominantly Alawite), staged a sit-in outside the northern city’s Fatima al-Zahraa mosque, in the presence of political and social figures.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, a member of the March 8 Sunnis’ Consultative Meeting, Mohamed Traboulsi, asked the two deputies of the Alawite community “not to give confidence to the government” if they do not obtain a ministerial portfolio.
“As long as they talk about the formation of a government of national unity, we demand the representation of the Alawite community because it is a key component in Lebanon, especially as they say that [Prime Minister-designate] Saad Hariri and Minister Jebran Bassil do not want to give the Alawite a minister,” he said.
The representation of the Hezbollah-backed Consultative Meeting in the cabinet is currently a main obstacle in the formation process.
Mustafa Alloush, a member of the Future Movement politburo and former MP from Tripoli, said that the organizers of these protests were “the symbols of the Syrian regime and are strictly implementing its instructions.”
“This demand is meant at having an expanded government of 32 ministers to ensure that the Free Patriotic Movement acquires the blocking third,” he noted.
“A bankrupt country like Lebanon is supposed to reduce the size of the government rather than enlarge it,” he added.
The Alawites - a minority group in Lebanon – account for about 55,000 people and had 36,000 voters registered on the electoral lists in the 2018 parliamentary polls. The vast majority are loyal to the Syrian regime, whose leader Bashar Assad is Alawite.
They have two deputies in the Lebanese parliament, Ali Darwish from Tripoli, and Mustafa Hussein from the northern region of Akkar.
