By Sami Zaptia.
London, 2 April 2019:
During its session held today in Tobruk, the House of Representatives (HoR) voted to hold a session in Benghazi “in the next few days”.
It was left to HoR head Ageela Saleh to set the date.
It will be recalled that Libya’s temporary constitution stipulated that the HoR was supposed to take Benghazi as its official seat. however, the insecurity and assassinations in the city at the time of the HoR’s 2014 elections forced it to seek another location.
Benghazi has been relatively safe and secure for at least two years and it is not clear why the HoR did not move there earlier on a permanent basis.
It will be recalled that the HoR signed an agreement in August 2018 with the Islamic Call Society (ICS) to allow it to use the ICS’s building in Benghazi as the HoR’s new seat.
The HoR had said last year that it would commence maintenance of the ICS building and would use it until it finds a permanent location in the city.
With the possibility of Libyan elections being held by the end of 2019 after the holding of the National Conference (@Multaqa.libya) in Ghadames in two weeks, time is running out for the HoR to move to Benghazi before a new election which could locate Libya’s parliament elsewhere.
