March 8 Alliance Exerts Efforts to Mend Ties after EDL Workers Row
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The March 8 alliance is still exerting efforts to resolve the quarrel between the Free Patriotic Movement, AMAL and Hizbullah over the full-time employment of Electricite du Liban’s contract workers.
As Safir newspaper reported on Monday that Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who is the son-in-law of FPM leader MP Michel Aoun, held a meeting with a prominent Hizbullah official to bridge the differences between the two parties.
Differences between the three parties grew after Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc and other Christian blocs boycotted a parliamentary session to protest the approval of the joint parliamentary committees’ proposal to permanently employ EDL’s contract workers after having to sit for a closed exam, which will be held by the Civil Service Board.
The lawmakers argued that the permanent employment of those workers would create a sectarian imbalance at the state-run firm as around 80 percent of them belong to non-Christian sects and most of them support Speaker Nabih Berri, who is a Shiite.
Senior sources in the March 8 alliance told al-Akhbar newspaper that the Hizbullah top official who held talks with Bassil is Coordination Officer Wafiq Safa.
According to sources, the two officials tackled the differences between the two parties and the solutions.
The meeting between Bassil and Safa coincided with the efforts exerted by Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh to resolve the spat between Aoun and Berri over the permanent employment of the EDL contract workers.
Sources told As Safir daily that they might be able to reach a settlement over the issue.
The approval of the employment led to accusations by the FPM that Berri violated the protocol while Hizbullah acted as a spectator regarding the campaigns by allies on the Change and Reform bloc.
Bassil had previously proposed to allow 700 contract workers to stand for an official exam, out of some 2,500 employees, while the rest would become employees at private companies under a three-month probation period.
