Libya is on the verge of chaos a few days before the elections, which are likely to postpone to 2022 and should lead the country into post-Gaddafi ten years after his fall.
During the night, a group of armed men surrounded the government headquarters in Tripoli and the office of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. According to some sources, he broke into the Ministry of Defense.
The president of the presidential council, Mohammed al Menfi, requested the intervention of security forces and, according to the Libyan media, together with other members of the same council was transferred to a safe place.
Parts of the capital were also left without electricity and plunged into darkness.
Tensions erupted after Memphis, as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, decided to relieve from his post the commander of the military district of Tripoli, Abdel Basset Marwan, close to powerful local militias, and to appoint the general in his place. Abdel Qader Mansour.
"There will be no presidential elections in Libya, we will close all state institutions," thundered the leader of the al-Samoud Brigade, Salah Badi, a Misuratino blacklisted by the UN Security Council since 2018 for having repeatedly tried to remove from the power of the then Government of National Unity of Fayez al Sarraj and for having carried out armed actions in the capital, causing civilian victims.
A situation that puts the upcoming elections at risk. Theoretically, the challenge between General Khalifa Haftar, the son of Colonel Seif al Islam Gaddafi and Prime Minister Dbeibah himself should be held before Christmas. But already last Saturday the Libyan High Electoral Commission (Hnec) announced the indefinite postponement of the publication of the final list of presidential candidates, explaining that it still had to "adopt a series of measures" and effectively blocking the already short electoral campaign.
(Unioneonline / D)
