By Moutaz Ali.
Tripoli, 18 May 2014.
General National Congress (GNC) president Nuri Abu Sahmain opened Sunday’s session with . . .[restrict]only 80 members of the GNC present. It was the first session chaired by him since his video scandal broke in March.
During the short session Abu Sahmain reread a statement he first gave the media on Friday as “commander-in-chief” about event in Benghazi’s events. Additionally he re-issued the joint statement made on Friday with Prime Minister Aldullah Al-Thinni and Commander-in-Chief of the Army Abdussalam Jaddallah Al-Obeidi.
As for newly elected Prime minister Ahmed Maetig’s proposed government, the president stated that he had formally received the Maetig’s list. However, because of Benghazi’s events, many GNC members from the east could not come and attend the session to vote on the proposed cabinet, so it had to be postponed.
In accordance with Article No. 136 of the GNC’s rules, Abu Sahmain will call for an emergency session within three days to vote on Maetig’s proposed government by “a majority of the attending members.”
Not everyone in Congress agreed with the decision to postpone the vote. “The deadline for Maetig to present his government was today and I think his people are exploiting what’s happening in Benghazi to gain more time” Qaminis Congressman Abdullah Al-Ghamati told the Libya Herald from Benghazi. “I am sure that people who are behind Maetig are gaining more benefits for him as Benghazi bleeds.”
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