Libya: Parliament Rejects New Cabinet, Protesters Take The Floor

Consultation will resume today for the formation of a government after a parliament vote yesterday rejected the first list proposed by Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur. The assembly session was suspended after a few hours when around a hundred protesters, mostly from the western city of Zawiyah, stormed the parliament building. The Libyan and international media indicate that the protesters “were not armed” and merely voices their “discontent” to the National assembly over the list of the Premier, which “didn’t include a single representative of our region”.

After the vote, some Mps explained that “the government was decided to hastily, in an arbitrary manner and on a friendship basis”, therefore “it does not represent all sectors of Libya’s society or its regions”. According to Abdelali al Dersi, elected in the eastern Al Bayda city, “there are too many unknown figures and other incompetent ones, without any experience and whose curriculum were not disclosed”. On the list of 29 ministers, which includes one woman for Social Affairs, there are many names of the previous transition government and bodies created by the rebels at the end of the 2011 revolt.

At this point, Abushagur has until Sunday to propose other ‘candidates’. In a brief TV address after the vote, the Prime Minister assured he had chosen “qualified people” and criticized that “the Assembly didn’t justify its decision”.

Abushagur, a 61 year-old technocrat, was elected prime minister by the National assembly on September 12, but only with a two vote margin in respect to the favourite Mahmoud Jibril, head of the Liberals national alliance. The National General Congress, name of the new Libyan parliament, is the top political authority set up with a vote after decades of authoritarian regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, ousted in February 2011 after 8 months of conflict.