Libya’s unity Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibé has vowed to hold elections in 2023, amid the political crisis over the postponement of polls in December 2021, which led the House of Representatives — the parliament based in the east of the country — to terminate his mandate and appoint his replacement.
Dbeibé stressed that 2023 will be «the year of elections and unity in the institutions» and accused the president of the House of Representatives, Aguila Salé, and the president of the High Council of State, Khalid al Mishri, of clinging to their posts.
Thus, he said that Salé and Al Mishri seek to share power through «suspicious agreements» and defended the actions of his government in the face of «obstruction attempts», as reported by the newspaper ‘The Libya Observer’.
«We have started building schools everywhere in Libya, projects that had been suspended 20 years ago», he stressed, before stressing that «in 2023 all contracts previously accused of corruption will be completed».
Dbeibé’s words came just over a week after General Khalifa Haftar, aligned with the authorities in the east of the country, announced «a last chance» to agree on a timetable for holding elections.
Haftar ordered in 2019 an offensive against Tripoli after months of tensions between two clashing administrations. The military operation was finally repelled thanks to Turkey’s support for the internationally recognized government, after which a unification process was launched, which received a severe setback after the postponement of the presidential elections.
The political crisis worsened after the decision of the House of Representatives to appoint Fazi Bashaga as Prime Minister by terminating the mandate of Dbeibé, who rejected the decision and has opted to remain in office until the holding of elections.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
