By Libya Herald reporter.
Tobruk, 19 October 2015:
The House of . . .[restrict]Representatives appears to have rejected UN Envoy Bernardino Leon’s proposed Government of National Accord. In a session today, attended by 135 members, it insisted that the Libya Dialogue agreement initialled on 11 July in Skhirat was the only version it would agree to and that the numerous changes made to it by Leon since then were unacceptable.
The HoR also decided that while it would continue with the Dialogue process it would change its negotiating team, till now been led by the HoR’s deputy president, Emhemed Shouaib.
HoR Benghazi member Abubakr Buera resigned from it last week in protest at the names presented by Leon.
This evening’s decision, read out before members left, was initially reported to have been unanimous. However, there was no vote and one member subsequently claimed that 70 of his colleagues disagreed with what had happened and they would be signing a statement tomorrow distancing themselves from the House’s supposed decision
That decision included five specific points. In addition to changing the negotiating team, the HoR said it rejected the names for the Presidency Council (the prime minister, three deputy premiers and two ministers) as well Leon’s proposals that Abdurrahman Sewehli head the State Council and Fathi Bashagha the security council. There should, moreover, be two deputy prime ministers as agreed in the 11 July Draft, not three, as changed by Leon.
Earlier, staff at the HoR reported they had been told to leave the building “for security reasons” because of expectations of protests.
On 8 October, the UN Special Envoy announced his choice of Faiez Al-Serraj as prime minister together with three deputy prime ministers, Ahmed Maetig, Musa Kuni and Fathi Majbri, and two other ministers, Omar Aswad and Mohamed Ammar, to constitute the Presidency Council.
In a move now widely seen as a major blunder, Leon also proposed Sewehli for the State Council, Bashagha for the security council and ministerial posts for another 17 prominent figures.
This report has been updated. It was initially reported there had been a vote. [/restrict]
