Crowds of Libyan parliamentarians from both sides of the divided country arrived in the coastal city of Sirte, as Libya’s divided parliament is scheduled to meet for a vote of confidence in the new caretaker government under Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah on Monday.
The Riksdag has been divided – like most state institutions – since shortly after it was elected in 2014, when Libya broke between warring factions in the east and west.
It is meeting this week to discuss confidence in a government announced by Dbeibah, who was appointed prime minister last month through a political dialogue held in Geneva by the United Nations.
The seat of parliamentarians is strategic. Sirte is a province controlled by a warlord and with a significant presence of foreign mercenaries.
The UN Special Envoy for Libya and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Jan Kubis on Sunday stressed the importance of holding the House of Representatives (HoR) session, the first in several years.
Kubis stressed that this session “is another important step towards restoring the unity and legitimacy of Libya’s institutions and authorities to achieve Libya’s unity, sovereignty and stability.”
He added that these efforts should not be traced under any pretext, “including through the spread of false news, such as the text message circulated today on the UN investigation into allegations of bribery.”
A UN panel found in a confidential report, seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP) last week, that at least three participants in Libya’s political dialogue forum in Tunisia were offered bribes of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dbeibah has denied the reports.
Earlier this week, Dbeibah said he had sent his proposed line-up to parliament ahead of the vote.
Under the UN process, his government is only meant to oversee the introduction of an election scheduled for the end of this year and then hand over power to the new authority it creates.
A military ceasefire during the same UN trial has been underway since the autumn after the internationally recognized government for national agreement (GNA) rejected an attack on Tripoli by Putish general Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA).
The ceasefire would include the reopening of the main coastal road through Sirte, which is maintained by the LNA. However, groups on the GNA side have refused to do so, saying that foreign mercenaries for the LNA remain close to the front line.
Haftar’s forces on Sunday blocked the important road and forced Dbeibah to fly to Sirte.
It is not clear how many of the 200 MPs elected in 2014 will attend the session, with about 75 arriving late on Sunday, Parliamentary spokesman Abdullah Belhaq told Reuters. Some members have died, others have resigned and others have threatened to boycott the meeting.
The debate on Monday will include a discussion on what constitutes legitimate quorum and what majority is needed to build confidence, said Parliament’s rapporteur Saleh Galma.
The interim administration will replace the UN-backed GNA, which has been responsible for Tripoli and the western regions, and the competing eastern administration linked to Haftar.
A Sirte official on Sunday said the city was ready for the meeting due to being held in a convention center.
“The security situation in Sirte is good and favorable for holding the session,” city spokesman Mohammed al-Ameel told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) without elaborating.
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