Libya will return to “square one” and the turmoil of 2011 if national elections planned for December are delayed, the speaker of parliament said, with a new rival government likely to set itself up in the east.
Aguila Saleh, speaker of the House of Representatives, said he did not want to see further division.
“If the elections are delayed, we will go back to square one,” Saleh told Reuters at his office in the eastern town of Qubah, warning that a new, parallel government could emerge in the east.
“The president remains the one who decides the matter of foreign forces and mercenaries in the country,” Saleh said, adding there were difficulties in unifying the army due to outside interference.
Saleh said that the GNU had failed to unify Libya’s institutions and had become a “Tripoli government”, demanding it take care of the obligations of the two dissolved governments.
But Saleh said there was no need for the 75 committee members to meet.
“We have a constitutional declaration,” he said. “We do not need to go around and waste time. No bargaining.”
Saleh also said that the government’s proposed 100 billion dinar ($22.15 billion) budget was too big and he expected a figure of up to 80 billion dinars to be approved.