Middle East Eye (MEE), an independently funded online news organisation, reported on Tuesday that the political rival and UN weigh in after claims delegates offered up to $500,000 to elect interim prime minister-designate Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.
According to MEE, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah is calling for an investigation into the legitimacy of his win in last month’s UN-led peace talks following newly emerged bribery allegations.
Aquila Saleh, the Tripoli-based speaker of parliament who was also in the running to lead Libya, said investigations were being launched in light of media reports that alleged several participants in the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) were given hundreds of thousands of dollars each in bribes to vote for Dbeibah.
Aquila Saleh told MEE: ”If it is proven that votes were bought, this is a crime that cannot be ignored and its perpetrator cannot be allowed to benefit from it.”
According to AFP, in a report seen by the news agency on Sunday and set to be presented to the Security Council in March, UN experts found that during the Tunisia talks, two participants “offered bribes of between $150,000 to $200,000 to at least three LPDF participants if they committed to vote for Dbeibah as PM”.
In a passage of the report, the experts say that one delegate “erupted in anger in the lobby of the Four Seasons hotel in Tunis on hearing that some participants may have received up to… $500,000 for their Dbeibah votes, whereas he had only received $200,000”.
The report was prepared by UN experts tasked with examining breaches of an international arms embargo on the North African country, AFP said.
Dbeibah’s office has denied the allegations and said he was “monitoring attempts to undermine the process of forming a government and obstruct the process of approving it, by spreading rumours and false reports”.
Confusion over ‘UN expert report’
On Tuesday, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) issued a statement distancing itself from the latest saga in the peace process.
“With regard to media reports circulated about allegations of bribery during the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in Tunisia, citing a ‘UN expert panel report,’ UNSMIL reiterates that the Panel of Experts (PoE) is a separate entity, completely independent from UNSMIL. The PoE provides its report to the Security Council Sanctions Committee,” it said.
The leaks and allegations that have thus far surfaced only cover day 1 of the LPDF series.
In light of the bribery allegations, Saleh said he had asked for the postponement of a parliament session scheduled for 8 March to approve the new interim government, according to MEE.
However, UNSMIL urged the House of Representatives in the city of Sirte to hold the session as scheduled.
“Following consultations with international partners, UNSMIL and its partners strongly encourage the HoR to meet as scheduled to discuss and consider the vote of confidence to the Cabinet to be proposed by the prime-minister designate,” it said.
“They encourage the PM-designate to present the line-up of the government without further delay. This call comes in line with the increasing public demand for the urgent need to form a unified government to address the most pressing needs and facilitate the holding of national elections in December 2021.”