Libya’s interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah called on his Cabinet to continue to carry out work amid the east-based parliament’s decision to appoint Fathi Bashagha as the prime minister.
Dbeibah told the ministers that they should disregard rumors spread on social media outlets and reiterated the idea that he will only hand power to a government through elections.
He referred to the east-based parliament’s government led by Bashagha as a parallel structure.
“The National Unity Government is still on duty and is the legitimate authority,” Dbeibah said.
He also noted that the country would hold elections in late June and that Libyans are ready for the polls.
Meanwhile, around 200 vehicles gathered around the Mitiga Airport in a display of support for Dbeibah.
The convoy, made up of soldiers loyal to the constitution and elections support force, shouted slogans in favor of Dbeibah.
Dbeibah was named interim leader last year under a United Nations-backed process aimed at helping the North African country recover from a decade of chaos that followed the ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
His government had the mandate to lead the country to elections on Dec. 24, 2021.
But the polls were canceled, and parliament began interviewing candidates to replace Dbeibah, a process that could spark new east-west power struggles in the troubled nation. The east-based parliament is in favor of the putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar, who waged a campaign against the internationally-recognized interim government to take over capital Tripoli.
The House of Representatives (HoR) in the eastern city of Tobruk had designated Bashagha as prime minister in February.
It had tasked him with forming a government to replace that of Dbeibah, based in the capital Tripoli in the west of the country and deemed by Saleh as having outlived its mandate.
The emergence of Bashagha's government once again gives the country two prime ministers, as was the case between 2014 and a landmark east-west cease-fire in 2020.
Bashagha, a 59-year-old former fighter pilot trainer from Misrata near Tripoli, is backed by eastern-based putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar whose disastrous 2019-2020 attack on the capital ended in defeat and a return to U.N. peace efforts, following Turkey's support to the legitimate Tripoli government.
During Bashagha's stint as interior minister in 2018-2021, he worked to reduce the influence of militias and bring fighters into state-run forces.
He is one of the few major Libyan actors to have good relations with foreign powers backing rival sides in the country.
