Libya’s eastern-based parliament speaker, Aguila Saleh, on Monday said the interim government, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, must be reshuffled after its mandate expired last month, reported Reuters.
“It needs to be restructured,” Saleh said during a parliamentary session, in the eastern port city of Tobruk.
The parliament speaker said a new government must be installed, and a new committee be formed to rewrite the constitution.
The presidential election in Libya was scheduled to take place on Dec. 24, followed by legislative polls. But the United Nations-sponsored electoral process was postponed after the High National Elections Commission failed to publish the final list of candidates.
An interim Government of National Unity (GNU) was selected amid intensive diplomacy after an October 2020 cease-fire between warring eastern and western factions.
The east faction is backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar, and there is the U.N.-supported administration in the capital of Tripoli in the west.
In April 2019, Haftar’s forces launched an offensive against the U.N. recognized government to capture Tripoli.
The government’s mandate “expired due to a censure motion voted by parliament, and the fact that its mandate ended on Dec. 24,” Saleh said.
He also called for the formation of a 30 member committee of constitutional law experts from the three regions of Libya to pen down a new constitution. He said the period of tasks for the new 30-person committee extends one month from the date of appointment without overlapping with or affecting the electoral process.
The UN special adviser for Libya, Stephanie Williams, called on the Libyan Parliament to focus its efforts on the elections rather than on forming a new government.
Imad Al-Sayeh, the head of Libya’s high electoral commission, told the legislature that preparations for the presidential and parliamentary elections could take six to eight months, citing lengthy court appeals by presidential rivals.
