By Maha Ellawati.
Benghazi, 20 November:
Benghazi Local Council’s only female member, and the woman who received the most votes in the 19 . . .[restrict]May elections, has resigned, alleging obstructionism and incompetence amongst officials in the town.
Najat Al-Kikhia said that the council had failed to achieve the expectations and aspirations of the people of Benghazi in the six months since it first took office.
“The reason for my resignation was the obvious and unfair hindrance practiced by some local officials, perhaps in defence of their interests and positions”, Kikhia said after announcing her decision yesterday.
The former councilor did not provide details of who or what she meant by “unfair hindrance”, but such allegations have been leveled at the council in the past, notably with regards to an early decision to freeze funding for two local television stations, Benghazi TV and the Benghazi Broadcasting Network.
Kikhia is the third person to resign from the local council, with the body’s first two presidents, Shahat Awami and Juma Sahli, having previously handed in their notice.
As with Awami and Sahli, Kikhia also aimed her fire at the central government in Tripoli and its apparent failure to provide the council with the necessary resources to carry out its work effectively.
She accused the government of “negligence and a lack of cooperation”, repeating a grievance frequently heard from the Benghazi council that Tripoli had failed to transfer the full amount of pledged budgets.
As an example of the consequences of this failure, Kikhia cited an outstanding project to develop Benghazi airport, including the construction of a new international passenger’s hall. “In the absence of the needed budget from the central government”, Kikhia said, “the council is considering the possibility of funding the project with the help of the city’s residents”.
The local council has recently commissioned a committee to liaise with the government in Tripoli in an attempt to secure the six million dinars it is estimated are needed to complete the project.
However, Kikhia complained bitterly that this committee did not contain a single member from the local council, which, she said, “demonstrates that the local council trusts in the abilities of others more than the abilities and capabilities of its own members”. Such a procedure was wrong, she said, and also contributed to her decision to resign.
Kikhia also warned that the council suffered from a remit problem, with the government having thus far failed to implement any regulatons specifying exactly what the functions and powers of local councils should be.
The National Congress is currently finalsing the details of a Local Administration law designed to clarify precisely these kinds of issues.
Prior to her resignation, Kikhia represented the local council’s fourth constituency of Al-Birka, having received 7,784 votes on 19 May, more than twice the number of her nearest rival in the district.
Correction: Najat Al-Kikhia has subsequently contacted the Libya Herald to clarify that by “officials” she was not referring to her elected colleagues on the local council, and that by “unfair hindrance practiced by some local officials, perhaps in defence of their interests and positions” she was not alleging corruption. [/restrict]
