TRIPOLI: Libya’s Interim Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah reaffirmed on Monday that he will only cede power to an elected government and announced a plan for legislative elections before the end of June, in the wake of an attempted ouster by parliament.
Already plagued by divisions between rival administrations in the east and west, Libya has found itself with two rival prime ministers in Tripoli after missing a crucial deadline for December elections.
The parliament sitting in the east appointed former interior minister Fathi Bachagha to replace Dbeibah at the head of the interim government on February 10.
The deputies also voted for a new political roadmap calling for presidential elections within 14 months.
Dbeibah has insisted he will only cede power to an elected government, and in a televised address on Monday evening launched into a diatribe against the “hegemonic political class”, in particular the eastern parliament, whose “reckless” decision to replace him “will inevitably lead to war”.
He in turn announced a new political roadmap which would begin with legislative elections “no later than June 24” — the date marking the end of the political process sponsored by the UN.
It is within this process that Dbeibah was appointed to head an interim government after years of war and division. — AFP
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