Tripoli— Describing the statements made by the Parliament’s Speaker as “legal and political fallacies,” the Government of National Unity (GNU) denounced and rejected on Saturday Agila Saleh’s call on speakers of parliament meeting in Cairo to stop dealing with the GNU headed by PM Abdulhamid Dbeibeh.
Such statements could derail UN ongoing efforts to get conflicting political parties agree on reactivating the political process towards holding of a long-awaited national elections.
In a statement posted on its Facebook platform, the GNU said what the Speaker said was of “regional nature” and that they “promote hate speech,” which it considered to be inconsistent with “the principles of national unity and efforts to achieve stability in Libya.”
Agila called for supporting the House of Representatives in exercising its legislative duties describing the GNU as “an executive authority whose term has expired and lacks the legitimacy that the government takes from the people through its representatives.”
Aqila said that “85% of the Libyan territory are under the authority of the House of Representatives and the government emanating from it. Stressing that these territories are witnessing a rare state of development compared to the circumstances it went through, especially the Hurricane Daniel disaster.”
The GNU considered the Speaker’s performance similar to an “individual leading a political party whose decisions are monopolized by its president,” noting that “many parliament members are communicating with the government and expressing their dissatisfaction and disavowal of the speaker’s stands.”
The GNU defended itself by stressing that “all institutions existing today, including the House of Representatives, have expired their constitutional term and do not have renewed popular legitimacy, but rather derive their legitimacy from the political agreement, and they are both equal in status.”
Meanwhile, the Presidential Council Chairman, Mohamed Manfi, stressed the need for a unified budget to ensure sustainability according to the duality of justice and oversight, based on planning, transparency, disclosure and accountability.
He said that the Presidential Council has moved towards international auditing and review of all budget items in coordination with the United Nations, calling for intensive contacts in order secure a unified budget that is subject to oversight and achieves justice.