Libyan PM fails to announce cabinet
CAIRO: Libya’s newly-elected prime minister failed to name members of a much-anticipated cabinet ahead of an expected deadline on Thursday, raising questions over whether his transitional government can unite Libya’s factions.
Prime Minister designate Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah was set to announce his cabinet in a news conference from the capital, Tripoli, and send it to Libya’s House of Representatives for approval.
Dbeibah said he had submited a “vision” for an interim government.
“We submited today a proposition for a structure and a working vision of a national unity government along with the selection criteria for (that) team to the speaker of parliament,” Dbeibah told reporters.
He said the submission was in line with the deadline set by a UN roadmap, which requires at least 30 per cent of top government posts to be filled by women and young candidates.
He also told reporters that the names of proposed ministers will be disclosed in parliament during a vote of confidence for his line-up.
But a statement on his Facebook page late Thursday said that he had not yet sent a list of names.
Dbeibah said his “main objective is to bring Libyans together and to make the competence of ministers a primary criteria”.
“We received more than 3,000 applications but were only able to study 2,300 of them,” Dbeibah said.
Appointing the cabinet is part of a Un-backed transitional roadmap, which envisages holding general elections in the war-torn North African country by the end of the year.
Since 2015, Libyan state institutions have been divided between two administrations: One in the east and another in the west, each supported by a vast array of militias and foreign governments.
“We are ready to submit the names (of Cabinet ministers) but we should consult among ourselves and examine candidate names meticulously,” Dbeibah told reporters in Tripoli without specifying when he will actually make the submission.
Dbeibah said he envisages a cabinet of technocrats who would represent Libya’s different geographic areas and social segments.
“These are critical times and we are taking into consideration that the Cabinet must genuinely achieve national unity and seek consensus and reconciliation,” he said.