By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 28 August 2017:
Former deputy prime minister Mustafa Abushagur has resigned from the House of Representatives (HoR) accusing it of blocking implementation of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA).
Abushagur, one of the four HoR members for Tripoli’s Suq Al-Juma district, took to Facebook late Friday night, saying that he and his colleagues had put great efforts into building a modern Libyan state, but reforming the HoR had been beyond them.
“I took the decision to resign after consultations with many groups and leaders in the constituency where I was elected,” he added.
He went on to criticise the HoR for obstructing the LPA and failing to meet the concerns of ordinary Libyans. He accused HoR president Ageela Saleh of hijacking the parliament by controlling all its meetings.
Abushagour, who gained more votes than any other candidate in the 2014 HoR elections other than Misrata’s Hanan Shalouf, will be replaced by the first on the list of the candidates in Suq Al-Juma who failed to be elected. Given that all others are also boycotting the HoR sessions in Tobruk, it is unlikely that he will attend.
The allegations againt Saleh are not new. In early June, almost 100 members of the HoR called for him to be replaced, accusing him of “grabbing all the powers of the House of Representatives and ignoring the rest of the deputies”.