Preparations continued to arrange the agenda for the Council of Ministers in the last session of the current government, set to take place Friday afternoon at the Baabda Palace, chaired by President Michel Aoun, before constitutionally resigning and entering a period of limited caretaker functions by late Saturday to Sunday, corresponding to the end of the current parliamentary term. After this, the Council will enter the domain of the upcoming constitutional obligations, the first of which is the election of a new Speaker of Parliament within a maximum timeframe of fifteen days, followed by the binding parliamentary consultations conducted by the President to designate the Prime Minister tasked with forming the government, before heading to the election of a new president within the sixty-day period preceding the end of the current president's term on October 31.
Sources informed "Al-Jumhuriya" that the postponement of the session from tomorrow morning to Friday afternoon is unrelated to President Aoun's health, who is expected to have left the hospital last night after undergoing a series of medical tests due to exhaustion from overseeing the electoral processes over the past four days. The results of these tests were reassuring and do not necessitate any exceptional health measures, as he spent his hospital stay at "Hotel Dieu" alongside his advisors.
According to the same sources, the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers is expected to finalize the agenda, filled with numerous items that require substantial time, as it will include a significant number of projects that need to be referred to the new parliamentary council before the interim period, especially those impacting the living, social, and financial conditions of the people, in addition to those related to Lebanon's obligations as negotiated with the International Monetary Fund, following a recent staff-level agreement.
Additionally, the session will discuss a report submitted by the Minister of Communications to raise telephone service prices for both mobile and landline networks, as well as internet services, to avoid a potential halt in phone services and a dramatic decline in their size and quality as early as next June, due to a lack of funding for maintenance and equipment in foreign and hard currencies.
Available information indicates that the first part of the session will involve an evaluation of all that accompanied the electoral process, as previously agreed upon in the last session. Ministers will also provide a report on the achievements made since the formation of the government on September 10 of last year. However, it remains unclear for some ministers, even as of last night, whether the session will discuss new appointments, despite ongoing efforts to push some through in this session, given the impossibility of approving them during the caretaker phase.
