Alagha 467four-partite alliance with Future Trend, Amal, and the Progressive
Socialist Party. Future Trend and its allies won 72 seats out of 128.
Hizbullah won 14 seats, adding 2 seats to its previous representation.^31
Hizbullah joined the cabinet with two ministers and began to have an
expanded presence in state institutions and the administrative structure.
e two Hizbullah cabinet ministers became instrumental in the Th
drafting of a policy statement that granted Hizbullah the right to continue
its resistance in the disputed Sheb‘a farms, a small area of territory still
occupied by Israel. Among other policy recommendations, Hizbullah also
called for reducing the voting age to 18 and changing the electoral sys-
tem to proportional representation, which the party believed would give
the eighteen ethno-confessional communities more equitable represen-
tation.^32 Although two ministers alone cannot veto cabinet decisions, it
seems that Hizbullah gave up its previous argument that it would not join
the cabinet because it could not accept responsibility for dire decisions or
unfavorable actions adopted through a two-thirds majority vote.^33 In jus-
tifying this change, Hizbullah was hoping that cabinet decisions would be
made based upon the principle of “consensual democracy,” whereby the
unanimity of all the ministers would guarantee that no legislation would
be passed that did not accord with Hizbullah’s policies and principles.
Hizbullah thought that there would be no need to resort to the two-thirds
majority vote principle, which is only employed when there is a serious
disagreement. However, practice would prove Hizbullah wrong.
e next period of this phase for Hizbullah was to test the party’s Th
power and prestige, both nationally and internally with its own constitu-
encies. A series of events illustrates the contestations and compromises
that began to characterize Hizbullah’s place in Lebanon’s national politi-
cal arena.
12 December 2005, MP and former editor and publisher of On al-
Nahar Gebran Tuéni was assassinated. That same day, the Lebanese cabi-
net met and referred that case and other politically motivated assassina-
tions to the UN commission investigating the Hariri murder and asked
for the formation of an international tribunal to bring to justice the per-
petrators of these crimes. When the issue was put to a vote, in an appar-
ent sign of disapproval, the five Shi‘i ministers walked out, including the
two from Hizbullah, thus suspending their participation in the cabinet