By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 3 December 2015:
Municipalities in the south of Libya have called for the creation of a Higher Municipalities’ . . .[restrict]Council to help run the country in the current crisis. Meeting in the south’s unofficial capital Sebha today at the invitation of its municipal council, the southern municipalities are to issue an invitation to all Libya’s municipalities to meet in the south within a fortnight to agree the body and launch it. A committee was set up at today’s gathering to organise the new meeting.
“The Congress [in Tripoli] and House of Representatives in Torbuk are no longer legitimate”, one of the southern mayors said, adding that they were “expired” “Only the municipalities now have legitimacy.” he said.
A number of other mayors from the east and west of the country had already expressed the same view to the Libya Herald.
The move cuts across the UN-backed Libya Dialogue agreement and its planned Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Faiez Serraj. However, the UN has seen the municipalities as part of the Dialogue process and has held talks with a number of mayors.
The south is increasingly active in trying to bridge the divide between the politically more powerful east and west of the country. Last month saw the “Fezzan Initiative” presented to the House of Representatives under which the Dialogue deal and the GNA would be approved, subject to certain concessions. [/restrict]
