Gemayel: Miqati’s Govt. Actually Got '56 Votes'
In the first comment by an opposition leader on the vote of confidence Premier Najib Miqati’s government won earlier in the day by a 68-vote majority, Phalange Party leader Amin Genayel sarcastically said “Miqati’s government actually got 56 votes.”
Explaining his point of view, Gemayel deducted the 12 votes of the members of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, noting that the remarks of MP Mohammed Raad, the head of the bloc, during the debate on the Policy Statement “totally contradict with the Policy Statement’s 14th article,” which stipulates that Lebanon will “respect” the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
“MP Raad’s remarks totally disavowed this tribunal and considered it null and void,” Gemayel added, highlighting the contradiction between Raad’s remarks and the government’s Policy Statement.
Miqati’s government on Thursday won a vote of confidence in parliament, after opposition MPs walked out en masse moments before the vote.
Miqati's government secured 68 out of a possible 128 votes in parliament, where Hizbullah and its allies hold a slight majority.
During the vote, opposition MPs Robert Ghanem and Imad al-Hout remained in the parliament hall but abstained from voting.
Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan, who is a member of the parliamentary majority, did not attend the session.
Arslan had resigned as state minister from Miqati’s cabinet hours after its line-up was announced in protest at the fact that he was not granted a key portfolio.
Meanwhile, MPs Nicolas Fattoush and Michel Murr, who were allied with the opposition during the 2009 parliamentary elections, granted the government their votes of confidence.
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