Hezbollah lawmaker Fadlallah decries Cabinet's lethargy

Hezbollah lawmaker Hasan Fadlallah criticized the government Monday for failing to act even on matters over which agreement has been reached, and vowed to translate Cabinet resolutions – including one on electricity – into action. “The problem lies in the government’s failure to implement its decisions,” Fadlallah said in a statement. While praising the Cabinet for the “good” step it recently took toward resolving the electricity issue, Fadlallah characterized its overall performance as “sluggish.” “People expect a lot at the social, economic and development levels,” he said, promising to seek implementation of decisions through energizing the Cabinet from within. A ministerial committee agreed Thursday to lease two electricity-generating barges from a Turkish company this summer after the firm slashed its original asking price by 9 percent and reduced the leasing period to two years. According to the agreement, which is expected to be approved by the Cabinet next week, the Turkish company Karadeniz will dispatch the first barge to Lebanon in August and the second a few months later. In his statement, Fadlallah alleged interference by unnamed parties intent on hampering the work of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government. “Important [Cabinet] decisions have been made at the state level, but the problem is that there are hidden hands involved in obstructing the work of this government ... in order to show that the majority’s experience has failed,” the Hezbollah lawmaker said. Fadlallah also lamented a return to the 1960 election law favored by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt. “Lebanon does not need an electoral law that takes it back 60 years but one that takes it forward so that true representation at the national level is attained, away from sectarianism and sectarian alignments,” he said. The 1960 law, used in the 2009 polls, adopts the administrative unit of the qada as the electoral district.