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By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 15 November 2014:
New councillors have been sworn in for Tajoura, Ghadames and Sorman municipal concils, replacing those . . .[restrict]who had resigned, in some cases it is alleged under pressure from local forces opposed to them. They have been replaced by candidates who won the next highest amount of votes in the three towns’ municipal elections.
In the case of the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura, four out of seven quit, including the mayor, Hussein Zarroug. He resigned in August saying that the job was too much for him. However the Libya Herald was told at the time that political differences with local factions were the real reason.
He has now been replaced as mayor by Hussein Benatiya.
One of the four who also resigned was Mohamed Faituri who had topped the vote last April by a commanding lead – 2,236 votes to the 608 of Zarrouq in second place. According to a source in the Central Committee for Municipal Council Elections, he refused to turn up to the swearing-in session and election of the mayor in May, claiming that he should automatically become mayor as a result. He thereafter refused to have anything to do with the council.
Meanwhile campaigning has started for municipal elections on 29 November in Tarhouna, Bani Walid, Kabau (in the Jebel Nafusa) and Jakharra (near Jalu).
Next month will see elections on 6 December in Brega, Murada, Khalej Sidra, Harawa, Tokra, Darj (near Ghadames) and Abu Grain (near Misrata). The following week, on 13 December, they will be held in Azizia, Kufra and Jadu.
The election process has continued despite problems with funding. An CCMCE official said that approval for the second half of its budget was stil awaited from the Ministry of Finance, even though it had been approved in the 2013 budget. [/restrict]
