Hamadeh Mulls Resignation, Says Time Has Come to Privatize Electricity Sector

Minister of Education Marwan Hamadeh said on Saturday he was considering resigning from his post but decided otherwise upon the wishes of MP Walid Jumblat and his colleagues at the Democratic Gathering bloc.

Hamadeh explained that mulling resignation stemmed from the “heavy toll that partisan and sectarian pressure took on ministerial work,” adding that he is disappointed by the new term's (of President Michel Aoun) failure to act upon reforms.

“I do not feel that the grand slogans of reform launched by the new term and government have produced any genuine reform,” the Minister told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5).

“There are alliances within the cabinet that defeat logic,” he said.

Turning to the thorny electoral law file, Hamadeh noted that the proportional law was not appropriate for the time being.

“I was astounded when I read the Orthodox law for the extent of its sectarian and confessional divisiveness,” he noted, adding that he was equally shocked at a hybrid law proposes by Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil.

He went on to say that the proposal of the Kataeb Party, for an individual district, was best at securing proper representation.

As for Lebanon's notoriously ineffective and costly electricity sector Hamadeh said that the Energy Ministry has been a failure since 2010 and has only been run by the same party.

"It is high time for the private sector to take over the electricity file,” he concluded.