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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 30 August 2021:
With tensions and the conflict between parliament (the House of Representatives – HoR) and the government rising, Prime Minister Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba made a lengthy televised address on Friday.
The tension has been building as the HoR has failed since spring to approve the last three draft 2021 budgets. Parliament then called the government in for questioning today, but the Prime Minister declined to attend as he was on a trip to Jordan. Taking advantage of the government being called in for questioning, a group of eastern HoR members tabled a vote-of-no-confidence in the government.
The government has now insisted that parliament sends in its precise questions ahead of the questioning session.
Here is a bullet point summary of Aldabaiba’s speech:
- The government has increased salaries for retirees by 100%, starting from the month of October.
- The government will not stop the decision to support the marriage of young people, and on September 5 the project will be activated. The decision was much criticised by the HoR.
- The House of Representatives continuously and intentionally obstructed the government’s work which is clearly seen by all Libyans.
- The HoR demanded an increase in education and the police, and after including it in the 2021 budget, they rejected it.
- The HoR is a failure because it has not approved a single budget in its lifetime in 8 years.
- HoR head Ageela Saleh accused us of failing in the Coronavirus file, and I assure that the doubters are losers.
- HoR members’ pensions are 20 thousand dinars, and this is an injustice to the rest of Libyans, so we will adopt a unified salary schedule.
- We have developed a solid plan to move the wheel of development and start reviving stalled projects in Libya.
- We announce the launch of the development programme for the last quarter of 2021 under the name (Reviving Life) after securing sources of income despite the lack of approval of the 2021 budget.
- Development projects will target roads, schools, hospitals, clinics, digging water wells, installing desalination plants, and others.
- The electricity problem is due to mismanagement and disruption of the HoR, and I promise the Libyans that by the end of the year the electricity problem will be finally resolved in the country.
- Those who caused problems for the Libyans are well-known people and well-known parties for 8 years.
- The elections will be on time on 24 December, and the losers will not have a future in Libya.
- Neighbouring countries (Tunisia) that accuse Libya of terrorism, should first of all hold themselves accountable for how 10,000 terrorists entered Libya from their country.
- If Tunisia wants good relations with Libya, they should clarify their totally unacceptable statements towards Libya.
28 HoR eastern members call for a vote of no confidence in Libyan government | (libyaherald.com)
Libya’s parliament and government are falling out: Analysis | (libyaherald.com)
