BENGHAZI, Libya —
Libya's
parliamentary speaker called Monday for a new interim government to be
established in the capital Tripoli, noting that the current executive has
outlived its mandate.
اضافة اعلان
A presidential election was due to take
place on December 24, followed by legislative polls, but the
UN-sponsored
electoral process was postponed indefinitely due to political tensions.
Those tensions pit a long-standing ally of
military strongman Khalifa Haftar against a Tripoli-based interim government
formed last year.
The Tripoli government was selected amid
intensive diplomacy after an October 2020 ceasefire between warring eastern and
western factions.
The government's mandate "expired due
to a censure motion voted by parliament, and the fact that its mandate ended on
December 24," speaker Aguila Saleh said during a parliamentary session, in
the eastern port city of Tobruk.
"A new government must be formed,"
he added.
The call comes as UN Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres urged Libya's political factions and parties to hold safe,
"inclusive and credible" presidential and parliamentary elections as
soon as possible.
Libyans "must now work together to
address the fundamental issues that have resulted in the postponement and
create the political and security conditions necessary for holding the
presidential and parliamentary elections without further delay," he said
in a yet-to-be-published UN report submitted to the Security Council Monday and
obtained by AFP.
He also stressed the need to continue
implementing the ceasefire agreement, "including the full withdrawal of
mercenaries, foreign fighters and foreign forces."
Parliament in September passed a vote of no
confidence in the interim government.
Saleh, himself a candidate in the postponed
presidential election, called on the attorney general to
"investigate" the government's expenses along with "abuses of
power" including nominations to posts.
He also demanded that the central bank avoid
transferring funds to the government in the absence of parliamentary approval.
No new date has been set for the elections.
Libya has been ravaged by violence and
insecurity ever since a
NATO-backed uprising in the oil-rich North African
nation toppled and killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Read more Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
