By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 19 August 2014:
The towns of Nalut and Kabaw in the Jabal Nefusa have announced a . . .[restrict]boycott the House of Representatives, claiming it is unconstitutional.
The Municipal Council in Nalut, its revolutionary brigades and civil society organisations in the town have called on its member of the House of Representatives, Salem Ignan, to withdraw from the parliament. They said their principle grievance was with the legislature’s decision to meet in Tobruk, according to the Libyan News Agency LANA.
The Nalut leaders said the house’s decision to meet there had led to an obvious bias in policies towards Operation Dignity. They added that they also whole heartedly rejected requests by the House of Representatives for foreign intervention in the country.
Similarly Kabaw said it would not recognise any of the decisions made by the new parliament. The town’s leadership said its representative in Tobruk, Ali Al-Asawi, did not represent it and never had. In the same way, the council rejected attempts by the new parliament to bring about a foreign intervention saying they would not accept the presence of foreign forces on Libyan soil.
Both towns have large Amazigh populations and the boycott is seen as being more to do with the Amazigh boycott of parliament over Amazigh representation and nothing to do with the Misrata/Islamist stand against it.
It is not known if the two members intend to comply. Ignan turned up in Tobruk as a late arrival along with Mustafa Abushagur on 5 August, the day after the House was inaugurated.
Meanwhile, attempts by Misrata and its allies to stop the House operating out of Tobruk have been continuing. Last weekend, a delegation from Misrata, Khoms, Zliten and Emsalata went to Sebha to try and persuade the local council and civil society organisations to order the area’s nine members to withdraw.
For its part, the government which has also been meeting in Tobruk discussed the current security situation in the country. The looked specifically at the problems in Benghazi and Tripoli although no specific plans were announced following the cabinet meeting. [/restrict]
