By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 5 June 2015:
The Ministry of Local Government in Tripoli, backed by the Khalifa Ghwell “Government of National Salvation”, . . .[restrict]has approved Zliten Municipal Council’s plan to subdivide it into 39 districts (????, mahala), each with its own administrator (or Mukhtar Al-Mahalat).
Under Law 59 of 2012 which set up the municipal councils, a municipality has to consist of one or more districts and each municipality, if it does want to create districts, has to propose to the local government ministry how many it will comprise, showing the boundaries of each one. It is up to the ministry to agree or refuse.
Under the same law, if the subdivision is approved by the ministry, the municipality then appoints district administrators who will be responsible for the provision of municipal services within their areas.
The creation of local districts represents another return to the pre-Qaddafi era. During the period of the monarchy, there were around 600 in the country. Already some 20 municipalities have submitted their proposals for such districts to the ministry and it is thought that by the time the process is complete there will be possibly more than 1,500.
According to the mayor of Zliten, Muftah Hamadi, the proposal for 39 districts follows a study into providing services to the municipality’s population of quarter of a million people. It found that the council needed to have such a large amount of districts if it were to bring local services to local residents. [/restrict]
