Libya’s dismissed prime minister Mustafa Abu Shagur appears to have paid the price for an unlikely rapprochement between liberals and Islamists planning to form a government of national unity.
Is everyone now convinced I am not part of the Muslim Brotherhood?
The turmoil comes with post-revolt leaders facing many challenges in a country still awash with arms and struggling for reconciliation nearly a year after the death of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in the uprising that ousted his despised regime.
Abu Shagur’s downfall comes less than a month after his September 12 election following an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on September 11, a date burned into US history.
The two largest parties in the General National Congress, a democratically elected assembly that took power in August, joined forces to oust Abu Shagur in a vote of no confidence on Sunday after rejecting his proposed crisis cabinet.
Abu Shagur, a US-educated engineer with a long history of opposition to Gaddafi, was elected last month by a narrow margin in a run-off on an independent ticket. He was seen as close to Islamists, but vehemently denied any association with their parties, even though they voted for him over transition leader Mahmud Jibril as a com-promise candidate.
But the plug was pulled on Abu Shagur by Jibril’s liberal National Forces Alliance (NFA) and the Justice and Construction Party (JCP) so they could form a unity government headed by an independent, an NFA official said.
Abu Shagur blamed his demise on his refusal to bow to NFA and JCP demands for control of a raft of ministries.
Congress members discussed the possibility of such a government yesterday when they met in a televised debate on appointing a new premier.
The pressure is on to resolve the impasse since one of the chief tasks of the assembly elected on July 7 is to ensure the appointment of a transitional government to run Libya for 12 months until elections can be held under a new constitution.
JCP backing gave Abu Shagur a two-vote lead over Jibril, one of the architects of the revolt that toppled Gaddafi, who Islamists view as too secular to guide a conservative Muslim nation.
“Is everyone convinced now that I am not part of the Muslim Brotherhood?” wrote Abu Shagur on microblogging site Twitter after the national assembly’s motion of no confidence, which was supported by 126 of its 200 members.
Analysts had said he faced an uphill task in forming a new government that would satisfy all regions and political tendencies while also tackling security issues that include strengthening the army and disbanding illegitimate militias.
One of the first challenges facing Abu Shagur in his short-lived tenure was the September 11 attack on the US consulate in second city Benghazi.