National Unity government announced

By Libya Herald reporter.

The Presidency Council headed by Prime-minister designate has announced the names of members of the government of national unity. The ministers are (in the order announced by Council):

1.  Defence: Al-Mahdi Ibrahim Al-Barghathi
2.  Justice: Abdulsalam Mohamed Al-Junaidi
3.  Interior: Aref Saleh Al-Khojja
4.  Foreign Affairs: Marwan Ali Abu Sraiweil
5.  Finance: Al-Taher Mohamed Sarkaz
6.  Local Government: Bidad Gansou Massoud
7.  Health: Mohammad Sulaiman Buzgaiya
8.  Education: Khair Milad Abubakr
9.  Higher Education and Research: Mahmoud Jumaa Al-Ojili
10.  Economy: Abdulmutalib Ahmad Bufarwa
11.  Planning: Khaled Muftah Abdulgader
12.  International Cooperation: Mahmoud Faraj Al-Mahjoub
13.  Communications: Atef Miloud Al-Bahri
14.  Transportation: Hisham Abdullah Abushkaiwat
15.  Industry: Faraj Al-Taher Senussi
16.  Oil: Khalifa Rajab Abdulsadiq
17.  Electricity: Usama Saad Hamad
18.  Agriculture: Adel Mohammad Sultan
19.  Labour: Fadhi Mansour Al-Shafi
20.  Training and Vocational Training: Mukhtar Abdullah Ojwaili
21.  Social Affairs: Ahmad Khalifa Braidan
22.  Water Resources: Usama Mohamed Abdulhadi
23.  Housing and Utilities: Ali Kosouairdi
24.  Youth and Sports: Nureddine Ahmad Al-Traiki
25.  Culture: Asma Mustafa Al-Usta
26.  Awqaf and Islamic Affairs: Mohamed Ahmad Alwalid
27.  Aviation and Air Transport: Said Ahmad Aldabeeb
28.  National Reconciliation: Yousef Abubakr Jalala
29.  Information: Khaled Abdulhameed Najem
30.  Arab and African Affairs: Naser Salem Emhemed
31.  Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs: Said Ahmad Al-Marghani
32.  Minister of State for Human Rights and Refugees: Saleh Al-Ghazal Al-Junab

The declaration, announced early this morning, was signed by seven of the nine-member Presidency Council. Ali Gatrani (deputy prime minster-designate) and Omar Al-Aswad (Presidency Council minister) had earlier suspended their membership of the council.  They did so in support for General Khalifa Hafter, demanding that the Libyan Political Agreement clause that the Presidency Council take over as supreme commander of the armed forces be dropped and, reportedly in opposition to the appointment of Al-Mahdi Ibrahim Al-Barghathi as defence minister.

The names were selected in collaboration with members of the House of Representatives negotiating on behalf of their towns and areas, not on the basis of competence for the job. This was done to try an ensure that the HoR now votes for the package. It has to do so within ten days, by 29 January.

As a result of thise process, only only two ministers are woman, Asma Mustafa Al-Usta at the culture ministry and Fadhi Mansour Al-Shafi at labour, and both are said to have been decided on by Serraj himself.

There is, significantly, no ministry for revolutionaries’ and martyrs’ affairs, including dealing with the wounded. Its absence is seen as an indication that the unity government government wants to move on.

The deputy ministers will be chosen, again largely on the basis of where they come from will be selected in the next few days. There will two for each ministry, meaning that the government including the nine members of the Presidency Council will contain 105 ministers. [/restrict]