With the background of the continuation of the political split between Libya’s western and eastern based regimes with elections seemingly a world away, the black-market foreign exchange rate of the Libyan dinar plunging to over the LD 10.50 rate per dollar causing prices to spike, and the CBL and HoR leadership attempting to introduce new taxes on consumer products, and the public perceiving their standards of living are being severely diminished, nighttime demonstrations continued in the city of Zawiya for the second day in a row.
The demonstrators demanded the overthrow of ‘‘all’’ political bodies in the country and the elimination of corruption.
In video clips on social media, the demonstrators’ chants included: ‘‘Those in charge are the enemies of God’’, ‘‘The people want the downfall of the regime’’ and ‘‘No to the east, no to the west, Libya is a patriotic unity’’.
Why demonstrations only in Zawia?
It is unclear why these demonstrations are only occurring in Zawia, located about 47 km west of Tripoli, along the main coastal road to the Tunisian border – as the harsh economic effects are affecting Libyans across the country.
One possible reason is that the Aldabaiba Tripoli government does not have a full monopoly on the use of force in the city, with a sizeable number of inhabitants supporting Hafter and a strong renegade militia presence in the city.
In cities under the full control of the Tripoli government demonstrators need prior permission to demonstrate. It is believed that it is difficult to obtain such permissions as the Tripoli government fears that legitimate demonstrations can be infiltrated by armed troublemakers and highjacked to cause premeditated instability.
