By Libya Herald reporter.
Misrata, 19 November 2015:
Protests against Misrata municipal council, demanding its members resign, are being orchestrated by the Muslim . . .[restrict]Brotherhood and it allies, officials in the city have claimed.
A number of protestors gathered last Friday and again on Tuesday demanding an emergency group take over the council pending new elections. They accused the council of being run by counter-revolutionaries who had signed unspecified agreements with others without authority, and colluded with foreign governments, in particular the UAE.
The protestors are expected to again gather tomorrow evening.
However, they are being dismissed as “so few” by local Misrata officials who said that they numbered no more than 200 people at most. In comparison, one official told the Libya Herald, “those who support the council are many thousands”.
He accused the Muslim Brotherhood and the wider Islamist Muqatillah group of engineering the protests, the aim being to end Misrata’s support for dialogue with the HoR and a broad-based solution to Libya’s current crisis. Much of the engineering was done from Tripoli, he added, although he agreed there were locals involved as well.
“People in Misrata are not stupid. They are can understand who is behind this,” said the official who asked not to be named. “They want to take control of Misrata.
Among those manouvering to bring down the council, the official claimed, was Sheikh Sadik Ghariani, still viewed as grand mufti in much of western Libya. His Tanasah TV station had strongly featured the protests, suggesting they represented a large number of Misratans.
Ghariani has taken an increasingly anti-Misratan line in recent months. Speaking on Tanasah yesterday, he said that Misratan forces had to leave Tripoli. [/restrict]
