Benghazi Local Council has said that it is opposed to the Cyrenaica National Council announced following a mass meeting in the . . .[restrict]city on Tuesday.
In a statement on Wednesday morning, it said it had not participated in the conference and would not recognize the Cyrenaica council. It said it would deal only with the Transitional National Council and the interim government. They alone, it said, were the legitimate representatives of the Libyan people.
The statement said that Libya’s future would be decided by its people.
Reiterating that view, 120 organizations and institutions in Benghazi also on Wednesday announced their rejection of a federal province of Cyrenaica although they also called the model of the central administrative state “an abomination”. They insisted that there was no alternative to the unity of Libya and stressed the need to include the public in discussing and adopting a new political system.
Meanwhile in Sebha, the main city on Fezzan, one of the three regions that the federalists hope to revive, there were demonstrations on Wednesday against the idea. The protestors did, however, want stronger and more effective local government. [/restrict]
