The recently-elected interim Prime Minister of Libya, Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, has yet to name the new members of the Libyan cabinet within the framework of a UN-backed roadmap, which envisaged the establishment of a cabinet by 25 February. Dbeibeh was expected to announce his cabinet in a news conference in Tripoli to later send to the Tobruk-based House of Representatives for an approval, however it is reported that he only shared proposed guidelines for the selection of cabinet members as well as an outline of priorities in the short-term.
During the news conference, Dbeibeh expressed that he is ready to submit the names of the cabinet ministers. However, he stated that consultations should be done by lawmakers to meticulously examine candidates. Dbeibeh underlined the importance of the contemporary situation and that the cabinet must achieve in establishing national unity and seek reconciliation. Furthermore, the Prime Minister added that the equal division of ministerial portfolios should be made between the country’s three main regions of Fezzan, Tripolitania, and Cyrenaica.
The appointment of a cabinet is a part of the UN-backed roadmap set until the general elections in the country, which is envisioned to take place on 24 December. Since 2015, Libya’s state institutions have been divided between the two primary national administrations of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica: each being supported by their own respective militias and foreign powers.
Dbeibeh was elected as the country’s interim Prime Minister earlier this month by the UN-sponsored Libyan Political Dialogue Forum based in Geneva, which also elected the three interim representatives from the country’s three administrative divisions in the Libyan Presidential Council, to lead the war-torn country towards the general elections in December. Mohammed Younes Menfi, a previously exiled politician from Tobruk, was elected as the chairman of Libya’s Presidential Council.
