By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 4 March 2014:
Members of Congress say they are planning to sack the Prime Minister, . . .[restrict]Ali Zeidan, at today’s session and pick an existing government minister as caretaker premier pending agreement on new appointment.
The move is in response to Sunday’s assault on the General National Congress (GNC) in which three members were wounded and others beaten.
Meeting in an emergency session at a downtown Tripoli hotel yesterday, members blamed the government for what happened, saying it had failed to ensure adequate security.
“There was a discussion at an emergency sitting today among the Congress members to remove Zeidan from his position,” Kufra Congressman and acting head of the Defence Committee, Hamed Al-Hattah, told the Libya Herald.
Congress members would debate the sacking of Zeidan at today’s sitting, Hattah said, giving members and political blocs time to discuss it.
Broadly confirming the move, Benghazi independent Congressman Omar Khaled Ubaidi said that today’s session would discuss dismissing Zeidan, but that he would be replaced by a “national figure”. No mention was made of an existing minister.
Although Congress members cite the government’s failure to provide security, the move is widely being seen as an attempt to divert pressure on it to dissolve itself and agree to fresh elections for a successor body.
Not all Congress members support the move, however.
“It’s a mistake to sack Ali Zeidan because it’s not perfect timing. Now there are challenges but we have to carry one, not to strike back [at the government], Khoms Congressman Abdulmonem Al-Yaser said light night. “We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
Congress members have previously told this newspaper that there was widespread agreement to dismiss Zeidan, but not until they could find a replacement. There has been no consensus, however, on who that replacement should be with the two main parties in Congress, the Justice and Construction Party and the National Forces Alliance, fearing the appointment of candidate supported by the other. [/restrict]
