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By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 9 April 2016:
The House of Representatives (HoR) will meet no later than 18 April to discuss and . . .[restrict]vote on the Libya Political Agreement (LPA) and the Government of National Accord (GNA, according to its first deputy president, Emhemed Shouaib. He was speaking at a press conference today at the Libyan Embassy in Cairo alongside second deputy president Ahmaid Huma and the interim government foreign minister, Mohamed Al-Dairi.
The decision to convene an HoR session followed talks last night between Shouaib, Huma and the president of the HoR, Ageela Saleh, who is in the Egyptian capital for the annual Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference.
Reporting on the decision, Shouaib also called on the EU to lift the sanctions it has placed on Saleh, according to the Libyan news agency LANA.
For his part, Huma said that that the HoR could meet as early as this Thursday, or possibly Saturday, but if not, then certainly on Monday 18 April.
Yesterday’s meeting between Saleh and Shouaib to bridge the divide in the HoR and the decision to meet by 18 April has been welcomed by UN Special Representative Martin Kobler.
At today’s press conference, Shouaib also announced that there would be a session of the Libya Dialogue team on Thursday to discuss violations of the LPA, in particular the meeting of the State Council in Tripoli last Tuesday and election of its top officials.
This was a breach of the LPA, Shouaib said, because the agreement had yet to be approved by the HoR. Until the agreement was approved, the State Council did not exist. There were other irregularities, he said. Under the LPA, 135 members were to be chosen from existing General National Congress members elected on 7 July 2012, but less than 80 members took part in Tuesday’s proceedings. Additionally, another 11 GNC members elected at the same time but who had since resigned were to be selected in cooperation with the Higher National Elections Commission, but that had not happened.
He also pointed out that when it comes into existence, the State Council would be an advisory body, not a legislature.
As to reports that some members of the GNC were planning to set up a rival state council, Shouaib dismissed them, saying that moves were in hand to deal with the matter. He himself was not worried, he added but noted that the last thing Libya needed at present was further division.
The unauthorised proclamation of the State Council last Tuesday has sparked protests across the country, the biggest and most unexpected being last night in Tripoli. [/restrict]
