Speaker of Libya’s HoR threatens to withdraw confidence in unity government

The Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR), Aqila Saleh, has publicly threatened to carry out a vote of no-confidence in the Government of National Unity (GNU) if the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers don’t attend the questioning session on next Monday.

Saleh said, speaking to Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath TV Channel on Wednesday, that the GNU is a failure and negligent in its responses to the Coronavirus pandemic and electricity outages, in addition to institutions’ unification.

Criticism of Presidential Council

“The Presidential Council is going to lose the HoR confidence as it is dealing only with the military officers of western Libya but not the ones from the eastern region.” Saleh indicated.

He added, in a threatening tone, that either the Presidential Council deals with all military officials in Libya or leave the matter to the 5+5 Joint Military Commission (JMC).

Criticism of High Council of State

The HoR Speaker accused the High Council of State (HCS) of hindering the work of the HoR to get the roadmap work done.

Aqila Saleh also said the HCS had turned from an advisory body to the HoR to an enemy, adding that the HoR will discuss election legislations for the president and the parliament in two weeks.

Saleh didn’t mention anything about approving the 2021 budget with only less than four months to go for general elections slated for December 24.

Criticism of Prime Minister

Saleh criticized the performance of the Libyan Prime Minister, Abdul-Hamid Dbiebah, saying he wasn’t granted confidence by the HoR as a Defense Minister, which was a vacancy but Dbeibah took it and added it to his work as a Prime Minister.

Running for Elections

Saleh said he would run for president of Libya and announce his candidacy soon, adding that he had never aimed for power as a main goal.

He reiterated that the HoR didn’t prevent any Libyan  persons from announcing their candidacy for elections, adding that dual citizens must renounce foreign citizenship to run for president.