By Moutaz Mathi.
Tripoli, 29 August 2016:
Just four members of the nine-member Presidency Council (PC) turned up today to work on its third government proposal for the House of Representatives. The meeting in Tripoli was attended just by PC head Faiez Serraj, Ahmed Maetig, Musa Koni and Ahmed Al-Ammari.
Of those not there, Abdulslam Kajman is in Nairobi representing Libya at the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development. No reasons have been given for the absence of Fathi Majberi, Ahmed Hamza Mahdi or Omar Al-Aswad, the boycotting member who had said that he would rejoin and take part in the discussions on the latest government composition.
The other boycotter, Ali Gatrani, had already said that he would not turn up to any meeting in Tripoli while it was still controlled by militias.
The meeting was supposed to have occurred yesterday Sunday. Again, no reasons have been given for the delay although there are reports that Koni was angry with Serraj and Maetig because the south of the country, which he repesents, has not been giving its fair share of ministers and officials. It is also being suggested that he was piqued that his brother Abdullah had been dropped from the board of the Libyan Investment Authority. However, claims by anti-PC social media that he is about to become the latest member to boycott the PC were clearly untrue. He was there today, actively involved in the albeit reduced PC meeting.
The PC has until Wednesday to submit a new, eight-ministry government to the HoR.
