Libya’s parliament ousted the country’s prime minister-elect in a no-confidence vote on Sunday, the latest blow to hopes that political factions could agree on a government charged with restoring stability after last year’s civil war.
Libyan prime minister-elect Mustafa Abushagur was the first prime minister to be elected after the overthrow of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi last year. He represented an offshoot of the country’s oldest anti-Qaddafi opposition movement and was considered a compromise candidate acceptable to both liberals and Islamists.
However, his proposed Cabinet was struck down by a legislature representing dozens of divided tribes, towns and regions across the country, many of whom feel they are owed the spoils of victory over Qaddafi. He was forced to withdraw his first ministerial line-up under pressure and his second attempt to submit one resulted in his ouster.
In a short statement on Libya al-Wataniya TV after the vote, Abushagur said he respected the decision made by the Libyan General National Congress as part of Libya’s democracy, but warned of instability if it takes too long to elect his replacement.
He had 25 days from his Sept. 12 appointment by parliament to form a Cabinet and win the legislature’s approval, but that deadline expired on Sunday. The Congress voted 125 to 44 in favor of removing him, with 17 abstaining. He had just put forth 10 names for key ministerial posts when the no-confidence vote was held.
Until a replacement can be elected by the parliament, management of Libya’s government is in the hands of the legislature.
The congress will have to vote on a new prime minister in the coming weeks. The incoming leader will be responsible for rebuilding Libya’s army and police force and removing major pockets of support for the former regime.
On Sunday, about 1,000 people protested in the capital Tripoli outside the congressional headquarters to demand that militias operating alongside the army end a partial siege of the town of Bani Walid, considered a major stronghold of former regime loyalists. They called for a peaceful solution to the standoff.
Perhaps the single greatest challenge facing any new Libyan leader is the proliferation of former rebel militias. One radical Islamist group has been linked to the attack last month on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed the US ambassador and three others.
There has been a widespread popular backlash against militias since that attack and the Libyan government has taken advantage of it to try to put some armed groups under the authority of military officers.
Any prime minister who wants to impose his authority on the militias will need broad national support — but such support is hard to get.
Some parliamentarians said that Abushagur’s Cabinet list was not diverse enough and involved too many unknown individuals for key posts. His first proposed Cabinet makeup was also criticized for including too many names from the previous interim government, seen by some Libyans as corrupt.
After 40 years of Qaddafi’s divide-and-rule tactics and last year’s war, Libya’s towns, tribes and regions are highly polarized. Many feel entitled to high government positions because of their losses in the war.
In an indication of the charged atmosphere, Abushagur withdrew the initial line-up for government after the parliamentary chamber was stormed on Thursday by protesters from the city of Zawiya — one of several cities that took the brunt of Qaddafi’s attacks during the war — demanding representation. Lawmakers left the General National Congress floor, saying they would not vote under pressure.
Independent Libyan lawmaker Nizar Kawan, who is aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, said the Islamist group’s party and a liberal coalition led by former Libyan rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril had been holding talks about replacing Abushagur with an independent figure who has no political background.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese