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By Libya Herald reporters.
Tobruk/Tunis, 7 November 2015:
In a development that could scupper a meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) on Monday . . .[restrict]to vote on the Government of National Accord (GNA) and the Libya Dialogue agreement, the president of the House of Representatives, Ageela Salah Gwaider, is to fly to Saudi Arabia tomorrow. He will be accompanied by five HoR members, the Libya Herald has been told by an HoR official. “The talks will cover the proposed national unity government and the current situation [in Libya],” the official said, noting that Salah Gwaider and his team would not be back in Torbuk in time for Monday’s planned session.
Without Saleh Gaider presiding, it would be difficult to hold a meeting. It could be done by the Deputy President, Emhemed Shouaib, but he is in Tunis and not expected to return to Tobruk either.
Eighty-seven members of the HoR have signed a statement accepting the GNA and the agreement.
There are claims that the Saudi visit has been deliberately engineered by the HoR president who is opposed to the planned government and the agreement. He has already been accused by outgoing UN Special Envoy Bernardino Leon of deliberately preventing a vote on the issue which Leon claimed the majority of members of the parliament support.
In his final report to the UN Security Council on Thursday on the situation in Libya, Leon also accused the president of the General National Congress in Tripoli, Nuri Abu Sahmain of the same tactic.
If there is no meeting, it could result in a new crisis within the Tobruk parliament. HoR officials say some members have warned that if there is no meeting on Monday to vote on the GNA then they will leave Tobruk and boycott the parliament.
It is not known, however, how many would do so.
Were all 87 to join a boycott, plus the four members of the HoR’s Libya Dialogue negotiating team who likewise support the GNA, the HoR would be in dangerous political waters. With twenty–three members already boycotting it, it would be unable to have a quorum for key decisions.
On the other hand, if there is a meeting and the accord and GNA approved, it could trigger a new crisis. Much of the east does not accept the deal – most of the 87 members who signed the statement endorsing the GNA are from the west and south.
Only ten were from Cyrenaica. [/restrict]
