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By Maha Sulaiman.
Benghazi, 12 June 2016:
The decision by the Beida-based prime minister Abdullah Al-Thinni to order the reinstatement of Omar Barasi . . .[restrict]as Benghazi’s mayor has been described as “interference” by prominent councillor Anis Al-Mejbri.
Barasi was fired a week ago by his fellow councillors and replaced with Zakaria Beltamer. Thinni then ordered Barasi’s reinstatement, ostensibly on the grounds that, given the crisis in the city, this was not the time to replace mayors.
There are, however, claims that the real reason Thinni ordered Barasi’s reinstatement is because he is opposed to the Presidency Council and Government of National Accord in Tripoli led by Faiez Serraj while Beltamer is sympathetic.
The situation, however, has been further complicated by part of the statement on the situation made on Saturday by Mejbri.
In addition to noting that he along with Zakaria Beltamer, Awad Alqawiri and Mohamed Nashad had met on 5 July and voted to replace Barasi by Beltamer, he added that if the Beida government continued to interfere in the council’s workings, it would suspend operations and hand over power to the commander of Benghazi military region.
This has been rejected by Alqawiri. In a counter statement suggesting that the threat of handing over power comes from Mejbri alone, he has now said that that he was not part of any meeting that talked about the idea. He has also threatened to resign.
He did not, however, deny that he had taken part in the meeting to elect Beltamer as mayor.
Despite what Mejbri says, any government would, in normal circumstances, have been able to legitimately take action in regard to Benghazi’s municipal affairs. Matters are far from normal. There are just five councillors now taking part in its affairs: Alqawiri, Barasi, Beltamer, Mejbri and Nashad. There should be nine. Of the others, Essam Al-Ghariani was kidnapped when his wife Salwa Bugaighis was murdered and is now believed dead, and Abdussalam Bassiouni received death threats and left the city. So too has former mayor Tariq Al-Urfi who was sacked in November 2014. He is now reported living in Tripoli. [/restrict]
