By Saber Ayyub.
Tripoli, 23 March 2016:
Khalifa Ghwell, prime minister of the GNC’s administration in Tripoli, has said that he has no . . .[restrict]intention of handing over power to the Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Faeiz Serraj.
In a statement dated yesterday but released today, the Ghwell adminisation said that it would relinquish office only if what it called a national government that came from the hearts of Libyans was appointed. It would not stand aside for what it said was government imposed against the will of the Libyan people.
Yesterday, UN Special Envoy Martin Kober, speaking in Tunis at the meeting of Libya’s neighbouring states, demanded that power in Tripoli be handed over “immediately” to the GNA.
In a particularly virulent attack today, Ghwell accused Kobler of behaving like a dictatorial “godfather”, not a UN special envoy. Speaking at a cabinet meeting, he accused the UNSMIL head of being anti-democratic by trying to impose the national unity government on the country without any approval from Libya’s elected representatives.
On the streets of the capital, however, Ghwell appears to be losing the battle for hearts and minds. In the east Tripoli suburb of Suq Al-Juma, hitherto a stronghold of the Libya Dawn military alliance that has been the backbone of the Ghwell administration, protestors this afternoon demanded he resign, describing him as head of a gang.
“ We supported them before in to protect the revolution and provide services to people. But we’ve found out that they’re just thieves and they never stop trying to prevent national reconicialtion because it means the end of their power,” one of the protestors told the Libya Herald.
Meanwhile, although Serraj and the rest of the Presidency Council has still not gone to Tripoli, the man he has appointed to be his interior minister, Aref Khojja, is there and is reported to have been holding meetings with numberous sympathetic militia leaders about providing security for when Serraj arrives. [/restrict]
