By Sami Zaptia.
London, 14 June 2016:
Faiez Serraj, the Prime Minister-elect of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord admitted in a speech last night that militias control the distribution of electricity in Tripoli.
Speaking in quite a short and uninspiring 15-minute televised address last night, the internationally recognized Prime Minister of Libya said that ”many challenges started prior to our (GNA’s) arrival on 30 March’’. These had ‘’accumulated over years’’.
He said that some challenges need urgent solutions whilst others needed longer term strategic solutions.
On the fight to liberate Sirte from IS, he said that this was a prototype of how Libyans can act in a unified manner.
He said that there were plans to increase the value of the Libyan dinar and solve the cash shortage crises. He blamed the cash shortage on the lack of confidence pointing out that there is LD 24 billion currently outside the banking system.
On the electricity shortage problem, he said that it was a multifaceted problem, partly old partly new. Many power stations had been damaged since the revolution and foreign technicians performing maintenance have left the country. This meant many are not performing at full capacity, he explained. He said he had called on foreign technicians to return.
He then admitted that his GNA still had no control in Tripoli, let alone the whole of Libya, outside its Baghdad-like ‘’green zone’’ of the Bu Sitta Naval base by confirming that Tripoli militias were coercing the employees of the electricity company to distribute the electricity supply according to their wishes.
Serraj called on the Tobruk House of Representatives (HoR), of which he was a member, to meet and vote-in his GNA.
He called on Libyans to unite saying that unity was the only solution for the country.
On the whole, beyond repeating promises to solve problems soon and calling for Libyans to be patient and unite, Serraj offered no new or radical ideas to solve the problems of the hard pressed Libyan people, in what was a quite uninspiring speech.
