Libya's speaker of parliament called Monday for a new interim government to be established in the capital Tripoli, noting that the current executive has outlived its mandate.
A presidential election was due to take place on Dec. 24, followed by legislative polls, but the United Nations-sponsored electoral process was postponed indefinitely due to political tensions.
Those tensions pit a long-standing eastern-based parliament loyal to military strongman putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar against a Tripoli-based interim government formed last year.
The Tripoli government was selected amid intensive diplomacy after an October 2020 cease-fire between warring eastern and western factions.
The government's mandate "expired due to a censure motion voted by parliament, and the fact that its mandate ended on Dec. 24," speaker Aguila Saleh said during a parliamentary session, in the eastern port city of Tobruk.
"A new government must be formed," he added.
Parliament in September passed a vote of no confidence in the interim government.
Saleh, himself a candidate in the postponed presidential election, called on the attorney general to "investigate" the government's expenses along with "abuses of power" including nominations to posts.
He also demanded that the central bank avoid transferring funds to the government in the absence of parliamentary approval.
No new date has been set for the elections.
The country plunged into turmoil after the NATO-backed 2011 uprising and split into rival governments – one in the east, backed by Haftar, and another, U.N.-supported administration in the capital of Tripoli, in the west. Each side is supported by a variety of militias and foreign powers.
In April 2019, Haftar and his forces, mainly backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), launched an offensive to try and capture Tripoli. His campaign collapsed after Turkey and Qatar stepped up their military support of the Tripoli government.
