| It's been a while since a situation merited dear Alexius Comnenus in all his glory. |
Miqati is a compromise kind of candidate. His party only controls two seats in parliament. He was prime minister before, in 2005, taking over from Karami and marking time for a few months in the last days of Lahoud's presidency before handing off to Siniora.
Results at the end of Day 1 of binding parliamentary consultations -- which showed 59 MPs voted for Miqati while 49 only voted for Hariri -- sparked a public outcry.
That'd be because March 14th holds a couple seat majority over the Hezbollah bloc. I'm guessing there are a lot of people unhappy with Wally Jumblat at the moment. There will be more in the days to come.
Hundreds of demonstrators condemning Miqati's nomination for premiership erupted into the streets of Tariq Jedideh, Cola, Corniche Mazraa, Cite Sportive as well as Naameh and Jiyyeh south of Beirut and in neighborhoods in and around Tripoli shortly after the results emerged around 5:30pm, blocking roads with burning garbage containers.
Mustaqbal
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
supporters in Saadnayel and Majdel Anjar also blocked the highway linking Beirut to Damascus.
Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance
That'd be the Hezbullies, natch...
bloc headed by MP Mohammed Raad, Michel Aoun's
...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
Change and Reform bloc and Suleiman Franjieh's bloc as well as other Opposition blocs have all voted for Miqati, including Druze leader Walid
WallyJumblat
... who's been on every side in Leb at least four times...
and six MPs from his bloc.
Following the collapse of Hariri's government, Hizbullah won the support of Jumblat, a longtime kingmaker in Leb's politics.
The four other MPs of Jumblat's Democratic Gathering bloc -- Marwan Hamadeh, Mohammed Hajjar, Fouad al-Saad, and Henry Helou -- announced support for Hariri.
Hamadeh was injured in a car bomb explosion on October 1, 2004 that killed his driver and injured his bodyguard. He probably retains a bit of curiosity about who dunnit. Helou and al-Saad occupy Maronite seats. I believe Hajjar was also aligned with March 14th with a nominal membership in Wally's Democratic Gathering bloc.
At this point, Jumblat emerged from talks with President Michel Suleiman at Baabda Palace, announcing the end of his Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc, after four MPs of the 11-member gathering decided not to back Miqati. Jumblat, instead, said he was renaming his bloc "The National Struggle Front."
As in the Struggle™ to find new members after selling the other ones out for a mess of pottage.
Among the politicians who endorsed Hariri were MPs Michel Murr and Nayla Tueni.
The Tueni family owns an-Nahar. Gebran Tueni was assassinated in 2005 by a false nose and mustache group calling itself "Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of al-Sham" -- al Sham is Greater Syria. Murr is Nayla Tueni's grandfather.
Monday's consultations included in addition to Hariri, Speaker Nabih
KnobbyBerri
... the Hizbullah sock puppet ...
whose Development and Liberation bloc also named Miqati.
... since nominating Knobby as PM would have been asking for trouble...
Berri described the atmosphere as "very, very good" following talks with Suleiman.
... despite the people out in the street burning tires...
The fate of the two-day consultations, which are scheduled to resume on Tuesday, remains unknown following the protests.