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Tripoli, 30 December:
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has nominated three new ministers — Ali Muftah Obaid as Minister of Higher Education, Ali . . .[restrict]Gadour as minister for Martyrs and the Missing and Yousef Mohamed Sherif as Minister of Information.
The nominations were expected to be submitted to Congress for approval today.
Two of them replace earlier nominees by the Prime Minister. Obaid, formerly with replaces Abdulasalm Bashir Duabi, who was disbarred from office by the Integrity Commission on 13 November and whose subsequent appeal against the decision was rejected earlier this month.
Ali Gadour replaces Sami Al-Saadi who resigned the portfolio at the beginning of November over what he claimed was the marginalisation by the authorities of “important” groups in the country — a reference to the revolutionaries.
The Prime Minister had not originally planned an information ministry when he unveiled his cabinet on 30 October. The decision to create the ministry came from Congress. It has been controversial with demonstrations against it; protestors have claimed it could see the government trying to muzzle the press. However, this has been denied by the authorities and it has been reported that Zeidan was not opposed to the move by Congress. [/restrict]
