Ekeomah Atuonwu
Libya found itself with two Prime ministers on Thursday, after its parliament voted a rival to replace the existing unity government’s chief Abdulhamid Dbeibah.
The House of Representatives said its decision followed PM Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s failure to hold presidential elections in December.
Abdullah Bliheg, spokesperson for the Libyan House of Representatives, explained the process:
“After Mr. Fathi Bashagha (speaker of the house) obtained the required recommendations from the High Council of State, and candidate Khaled Al-Baibas was unable to obtain the required recommendations from the High Council of State, the House of Representatives voted to grant confidence to Mr. Fathi Bashagha, as head of the next government, with the unanimous consent of the representatives present in today’s session.”
Libya now has two prime ministers which deepens divisions between eastern and western administrations.
Bashagha and Dbeibah, both from the powerful western city of Misrata, have the support of rival armed groups in the Libyan capital and the surroundings.
Observers fear Thursday’s vote could repeat a 2014 schism which saw two parallel governments emerge.
The 2014 crisis had seen a UN-backed unity government face off against the parliament, which is backed by eastern military chief Khalifa Haftar — another candidate in the elections set for December.
Fathi Bashagha’s administration will have the mission to lead the country to elections, a mandate that was agreed to under a U.N.-mediated peace process.
But Dbeibah, who this week survived an apparent assassination attempt, has rejected the attempts to replace him. He has said he would “accept no new transitional phase or parallel authority” and would hand over power only to an elected government.
He also described the parliament’s move as an attempt to enter Tripoli by force and promised to draft a new election law to solve the political crisis.
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