Cabinet: 20 Percent Quota for Women in Municipal Elections, Submarine 'Odyssey Explorer' Heading to Lebanon

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Cabinet: 20 Percent Quota for Women in Municipal Elections, Submarine 'Odyssey Explorer' Heading to Lebanon
The extraordinary session of the Cabinet on Friday adopted a twenty percent quota for women in the forthcoming municipal elections instead of the previously mulled thirty percent, knowing that some ministers demanded a fifty percent quota.
As to the issue of the obligatory university degree for heads of municipalities, the suggestion was dropped for being "non-democratic" according to the vast majority of the ministers.

The Cabinet also adopted the suggestion on allowing public schools' teachers and public servants to participate in the elections.

The issue of electing the heads of municipalities and their deputies directly by the voters raised the issue of municipal elections in Beirut. Some ministers debated that Beirut Governor who has major jurisdiction is not elected to office, but rather appointed.

The Cabinet will discuss the issue in its next session on Monday in light of adopting the suggestion of proportional representation or dropping it.

Interior Minister Ziad Baroud described the atmosphere of Friday's session as relaxed and diverse, adding he was satisfied by what happened in the session despite the outcome of the discussions.

In remarks published by An Nahar daily on Saturday, Baroud stressed that "holding the municipal elections on time does not require a resolution from the Cabinet since it is related to implementing the law, and the Interior Ministry has respected the legal grace period despite the delay in forming the (current) government."

State Minister Adnan al-Sayyed Hussein stressed the importance of administrative decentralization, pointing it is stated as an article of the ministerial Policy Statement as well as an article of the Taef Accord which should not be abandoned.

In an interview with An Nahar, al-Sayyed Hussein said the issue requires boosting the budget of the municipalities in general, and the unions of municipalities in specific.

On the other hand, Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil suggested restituting the draft law on lowering the voting age from the Parliament in order to provide the necessary agreement on its timing. However, Bassil was asked to register his request at Cabinet's general-secretariat so that it can be listed on next session's agenda given that it was not listed on Friday's agenda.

Bassil told An Nahar he will submit a written request to the Cabinet so that the item gets listed on the agenda according to rules of procedure.

As to the doomed Ethiopian plane, PM Saad Hariri stressed "government's commitment to respecting the right of the people to know the complete truth," adding that the government will provide them with information once concrete evidences are reached.

For his part, President Michel Suleiman called on everyone to wait for the investigations' results and the outcome of the ongoing search missions to recover the plane's body and the missing victims.

Information Minister Tarek Mitri revealed that the Cabinet decided to officially hire the company operating the U.S. civilian search-and-rescue vessel Ocean Alert.

The Cabinet also decided to set a deal with the owner company of the submarine Odyssey Explorer, which has the means of pulling the plane's debris from the sea bottom and which will be heading to Lebanon soon.

The Cabinet assigned the Higher Relief Commission to cover the required expenses.

On the other hand, the Cabinet decided to extend the contracts of the two companies operating mobile phone communications in Lebanon after extensive discussions and criticism from some ministers.

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