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By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli, 10 September 2014:
The capital’s district of Abu Sleem now has a mayor and municipal council. Six of . . .[restrict]its seven councillors, elected in May in a 46-percent turnout of the ten thousand voters who had registered, were sworn into office this morning by the Deputy Minister of Local Government, Mohamed Al-Haji. They then proceeded to elect Abdulrahman Al-Hamidi as Abu Sleem’s first-ever mayor.
He had three votes in a contest with Abdulaziz Marzoug who took two and Ali Harari just one although he came top of the public vote in May.
The district, bordering the cross-city highway and the Airport Road, has been largely voiceless and ignored over the past three years, having been a bastion of support for the Qaddafi regime during the revolution. Since then it has been increasingly polarised with some residents supporting the locally based pro-Libya Dawn brigade led by the controversial Abdul Ghani Kikli (a.k.a Ghnaiwa), but the majority deeply opposed. Recently the latter supported the Zintanis in the Tripoli clashes, part of which occurred in the adjacent Hay Akwakh area – with considerable destruction.
A working mayor and municipal council should bring some stability and the chance of development for Abu Sleem, but it cannot be guaranteed. The seventh councillor who did not turn up to today’s proceedings was in Zintan, it is thought because he felt his safety could not be guaranteed if he turned up in his home district.
The election of Hamidi brings to 70 the number of mayors now in post in the country.
Meanwhile, the town of Musaid on the Egyptian border became the 81st in the country to elect its municipal council.
On 22 September, Ghat will become the 82nd. [/restrict]
