The Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR), Ageela Saleh, called today on members of the House to attend an official session.
The session will be held next Monday 14 September at the HoR’s official seat in Benghazi.
No agenda for the session was announced.
First official session in over eight months
It will be recalled that this will be the first time the HoR has sat in an official session for more than eight months. This excludes unofficial sessions where issues were debated without a binding vote.
Calls for sessions ignored by Saleh
Over this period there have been numerous calls by various HoR members on Speaker Salah to convene a session – without any success.
It is believed that Saleh has avoided holding an official HoR session because of the threat of his removal as Speaker.
Calls for removal of Saleh
There have also been calls for the removal of Saleh from his post as HoR Speaker – again without success.
The HoR: A zombie
The Benghazi-based HoR has proven to be a moribund body unable to fulfil its role as an oversight body over both Libyan governments in Tripoli and Benghazi.
It has failed to hold sessions that include all existing members, with most western Libya based members unwilling to attend in territory controlled by the Hafter family.
It has failed to pass laws to implement desperately needed reform of a system and an economy inherited from the Qaddafi rentier and centralised state system.