By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 12 March 2014:
At his first press conference after taking over from Ali Zeidan, Abdullah Thinni confirmed that he . . .[restrict]considers his government as purely a “caretaker government” until the GNC appoints a new Prime Minister at the end of his two weeks tenure.
Abdullah Thinni, flanked by the acting Minister for Oil and the Minister of Culture, assured citizens that the democratic change of government in a peaceful manner is a natural process in the new Libyan democratic order. He called on all to put the supreme interests of the nation above all and work seriously for the building of Libya.
Thinni also confirmed that his government considers the decisions taken by the GNC as constitutional and that it will abide by them.
The caretaker Prime Minister did not elaborate as to what exactly he was referring to, leading to speculation that he was referring to the claims by some GNC members that the process of the removal of Ali Zeidan as Prime Minister was carried out incorrectly and was therefore unconstitutional.
Equally, the caretaker Prime Minister could be referring to the fact that a constitutional amendment to the Transitional Constitutional Declaration to organize parliamentary elections in June was bundled and passed by the GNC as part of the same vote of no confidence in Ali Zeidan.
The caretaker Prime Minister went on to request that the GNC pass an urgent emergency budget in order that his government can continue the work of governing and in order to “face the great security challenges”. [/restrict]