By Libya Herald staff.
18 December 2014:
Municipal elections in Abu Grain postponed last month have now been abandoned following the decision by . . .[restrict]Omar Al-Hassi to incorporate it into Misrata municipality.
The decision by the GNC-appointed “prime minister”, taken last week but only disclosed now, is said to have been not well received in the town, some 100 kilometres south-east of Misrata and at the junction of the coast road to Sirte and the road heading south to Waddan.
“People [in Abu Grain] are feeling very bad about it,” said an official from the Central Committee for Municipal Council Elections (CCMCE). “They are not happy at all.”
There are claims that the decision to hand Abu Grain to Misrata was taken by the Hassi administration to reward the latter for its political support and ensure that Misrtan forces continued to controlled the road to Sirte unchallenged. Last month, the Libya Herald was told that Hassi’s “local government minister” had at that point called on the CCMCE to suspend the municipal elections in Abu Grain because people there wanted to be part of Misrata.
However, according to a CCMCE source, enquiries had showed that this was untrue and that the town’s residents did not want to be taken over by their neighbour.
The suspension of the municipality means that Libya will have 99 municipalities, not 100, as earlier planned. [/restrict]
