LIBYAN LEADER IN WEST IS ‘READY FOR ELECTIONS TO UNITE COUNTRY’

▶ Abdul Hamid Dbeibah tells World Governments Summit that era of rival ruling bodies is ending

The Prime Minister of one of Libya’s two rival governments said yesterday that he expected his administration to be the last before nationwide elections take place.

Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai yesterday, said his government supported elections and would pass control to whoever the future elected parliament chose to lead.

“We [the National Unity government] will be the last transitional stage in Libya,” he told the gathering of global leaders.

“We will go to the next stage, which is the constitutional basis for organising elections, and then they will begin.

“We are ready to hold elections in accordance with the constitution,” added Mr Dbeibah. “We want fair laws that are not tailored for any group, and we will be the first government to hand over to whomever the new parliament chooses and whoever it chooses as president of the country.”

Mr Dbeibah did not specify when the parliamentary elections would take place.

Libya has gone through turmoil since 2011, when dictator Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown by rebels, aided by western air strikes.

The country was plunged into a civil war and has remained divided since.

The Government of National Unity – headed by Mr Dbeibah, – is based in Tripoli in western Libya, while the Government of National Stability, led by Osama Hammad, governs the east of the country.

Mr Dbeibah’s comments came on the same day as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Egyptian President

Abdel Fattah El Sisi in Cairo. Turkey is one of the major supporters of the Government of National Unity, while Egypt – Libya’s neighbour – has backed the rival government in the country’s east.

Amid a thawing of relations between the two regional powers, Mr El Sisi said Egypt looked forward to co-operating with Turkey to bring stability to Libya through legislative and presidential elections.

Mr Dbeibah said that economic and social reforms by his government would help reform and rebuild the country.

Economic reforms would pump “oxygen back into Libya’s body,” he said, pointing to his government’s efforts to restore electricity supplies.

“For nearly 10 years, the electricity in Libya was constantly cut off, but we made great efforts to solve this problem and now, it has not been cut off for a single minute for the last year and a half,” Mr Al Dbeibah said.

He also cited a controversial decision he made last year to end fuel subsidies in Libya and said that authorities will instead offer direct cash support to the population.

Libya relies heavily on its oil industry for revenue.

Despite having Africa’s largest crude reserves, a third of

Libya’s population lives below the poverty line and parts of the country suffer chronic shortages of petrol and gas due to inadequate investment in pipelines and refining capabilities.

Its major oilfields have been closed by protests in recent months.

Libyans also vented their fury last year after floods destroyed much of the port city of Derna in the east of the country and killed at least 4,600 people.

The Libyan Public Prosecution Authority said it found that “negligence” led to the collapse of the Bilad and Sidi Bou Mansour dams above the city following heavy rains brought by a hurricane that wreaked havoc across the Mediterranean region.

Many Libyans also blamed rival government divisions for what was widely perceived as an inadequate response by the authorities to the disaster.

We will be the first government to hand over to whoever the new parliament chooses ABDUL HAMID DBEIBAH

Prime Minister of National

Unity Government