By Ayman Amzein.
Benghazi, 18 March 2016:
Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Benghazi’s Kish Square this afternoon demanding that the House of Representatives . . .[restrict](HoR) reject the planned Government of National Unity (GNA) of prime minister-designate Faeiz Serraj. Instead, they said, the HoR must appoint a military council headed by Khalifa Hafter to run Libya.
The demonstration was organised by pro-Hafter local activists, some of whom spoke at the gathering, and was announced on Rasmiya TV. It also supports him.
In what is seen as strong backing for the event by the army and police, units guarded the demonstrators while air force helicopters flew overhead.
Meanwhile, the government in Beida led by Abdullah Al-Thinni today said that until the HoR approves the GNA, it remains in office. It further warned that any attempt to impose the GNA on Libya without the endorsement by the HoR risked aggravating the already chaotic political and economic situation and of creating further splits in the country.
The Thinni government added that it considered the call from the Presidency Council to state institutions to deal directly with it as a violation of Libya’s legal and constitutional norms. It fully supported the Libyan dialogue brokered by the UN, it said, but the council had no legal status at present. It further noted that the endorsement of GNA by the HoR was one the main elements of the Libyan Political Agreement signed in Skhirat. [/restrict]
