By Michel Cousins.
Tripoli, 13 November:
The Integrity Commission has ruled that four members of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s cabinet which is to . . .[restrict]be inaugurated tomorrow should not hold office. They are the proposed Interior Minister Ashour Suleiman Shuwail, Ali Mohammed Muhairiq (Electricity), Abdulasalm Bashir Duabi (Higher Education) and Muaz Fathi Al-Khoja (Minister for Relations with Congress).
According to the National Congress Facebook page, commission decisions on another four ministers still have to be taken. They are Ali Al-Aujali (Foreign Affairs), Kamla Khamis Al-Mazini (Social Affairs), Ahmed Ayad Ali Al-Urfi (Agriculture) and Abdulsalam Mohammed Abusaad (Religious Affairs and Awqaf).
All eight had been approved by the General National Congress on 31 October. However, it was reported at the time that six names had been referred to the Integrity Commission to see if they should take office or not. The six were Aujali, Shuwail, Abusaad, as well Nurideen Abdulhamid Dagman (Health), Salah Bashir Margani (Justice) and Habib Mohammed Al-Amin (Culture). The following day there were protests outside Congress demanding the removal of all six.
It was later disclosed by the Integrity Commission that they were assessing all ministerial names.
Today’s decision and the announcement that only four others remain to be considered infers that Dagman, Margani and Al-Amin have been cleared.
The four barred members have the right to appeal to the courts. However, Zeidan had said that he would not include anyone who was deemed unfit for office by the commission.
He now has five posts to refill — those of the four rejected today and the portfolio of Martyrs and Missing. The man appointed to the latter post, Sami Al-Saadi, resigned a week ago over what what he claimed was the marginalisation by the authorities of “important” groups in the country. He was thought to be referring to the revolutionaries.
Tomorrow’s inauguration will not include the other four ministers whose cases as still being considered by the Integrity Commission.
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