Although Libya's new interim prime minister, Ahmed Maetig, who was sworn in last week, has begun to form what he has called the “crisis government” needed to handle the critical situation in the country, the country's General National Congress (GNC) is still gripped by controversy over the legitimacy of the voting procedures that brought him to power. The issue is all the more thorny since the new interim government needs to be formed so that desperately needed budgetary allocations for this year can be released to ease the huge cash shortages that plague all government departments. Although the Libyan fiscal year, which begins in January, is nearly half over, the 2014 budget cannot be released because under the Libyan Constitutional Declaration an elected government is required to receive it. This condition is not met by the current caretaker government of minister of defence Abdullah Al-Thinni who has remained acting prime minister until the new prime minister forms his government. Maetig has been given two weeks from the moment he was sworn into office to submit his proposed government team to the GNC for a vote of confidence that will take place next week. According to a number of Libyan sources contacted by Al-Ahram Weekly, it is uncertain how many portfolios Maetig will assign. Meanwhile, First Deputy GNC President Ezzeddin Al-Awami, who chaired last Tuesday's session when the voting for the prime minister took place, has appealed to the Libyan Supreme Court to rule on the legitimacy of the procedures that led to Maetig's election. The session was particularly stormy, and it erupted in shouting matches after one stage of the voting, culminating in Al-Awami walking out of the chamber after he was insulted by a GNC deputy. In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Al-Awami said that Maetig had failed to obtain the 120 votes needed to be charged with forming a government. However, the Constitutional Declaration, adopted by the former interim national assembly in August 2011 and which continues to apply, states that a prime ministerial candidate needs to obtain a simple majority (50 per cent + 1) of GNC members. This appears to be in Maetig's favour, and some Libyan sources are confident that the Court will rule in favour of Maetig's appointment as premier. They hold that the Court is certain to prioritise constitutional articles over the GNC bylaws on which the first deputy president bases his plea. However, it appears that the rift in the GNC has increased now that GNC president Nouri Abu Sahmain has ratified the resolution charging Maetig with forming a new government. Al-Awami has been shocked by the sudden Abu Sahmain shift, since only a few hours before he had issued a decree calling on the current acting prime minister to remain in his post until a new prime minister was elected. Caught in this awkward situation, Al-Thinni appealed to the Fatwa Bureau of the ministry of justice and the Supreme Court to resolve the contradictions surrounding the election of Maetig. Al-Thinni resigned as prime minister several weeks ago after he and his home were threatened during his own attempts to form a cabinet. He had only agreed to remain in office until a successor was elected. Maetig has stated that the controversy over his election is an internal GNC matter that concerns that assembly alone. He has nevertheless confirmed that after his election he was asked to take the oath of office as prime minister. Political circles have been sharply divided over Maeteg's election. While a large bloc of GNC members, led by Al-Awami and Al-Sherif Al-Wafi, has adamantly objected, a larger group has supported him. In addition to GNC president Nouri Al-Sahmain and his second deputy Saleh Makhzoum, the major Islamist blocs – the Justice and Construction Party and the Loyalty to the Blood of the Martyrs group –have been just as adamant that his election was legitimate. Outside the GNC chamber, public opinion is also divided. While significant tribal and liberal forces and the federalist movement in eastern Libya feel that Maetig has been forced on them by Islamist forces, most notably the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood's political wing and the large group of jihadists, the Islamists maintain that Maetig was elected by an overwhelming parliamentary majority. The leaders of the federalist movement based in Cyrenaica have said that if Maetig goes ahead in forming a government this will undermine the agreement struck on the oil-exporting ports in this part of the country. The blockade of the ports by a contingent of federalist forces in June 2013 caused severe attrition to the Libyan economy, which is primarily dependent on oil exports. An agreement to reopen the ports was reached between Tripoli and leaders from Cyrenaica last month. Maetig in his first press statements since taking the oath of office said that the agreement had been struck between the Al-Thinni government and the pro-federalists who controlled the ports and that his government, once formed, would reestablish contact with the parties in order to resolve the crisis. Some have interpreted this as a diplomatic response to the federalists' objections to his election. What is certain is that the climate surrounding his election will impact negatively on the deliberations he needs to undertake in order to form his cabinet. Even if he manages to patch one together, it is difficult to imagine that it will obtain the necessary vote of confidence in the GNC at this stage. Meanwhile, the question of security continues to press as heavily as ever in the country. This applies especially to the east, where terrorist attacks have picked up dramatically over recent days in Benghazi and Derna in particular. During the past month, Benghazi has been the scene of clashes between extremists and security forces consisting primarily of Benghazi police and some special forces that remain from the old Libyan army. Maetig has yet to declare his position on the militant Islamist Ansar Al-Sharia group which the Al-Thinni government held responsible for the attacks against the Benghazi security directorate in May, causing numerous dead and wounded. This was the first time a Libyan government had identified a specific party as responsible for one of the acts of violence and bloodshed that have struck Libya since the overthrow of the former Gaddafi regime. Regarding possible renewed international intervention in Libya, Maetig has said that all such talk is media speculation. The international community is concerned for Libya's stability above all and intervention would only complicate matters further, he said. Nevertheless, he anticipated forms of political intervention that could yield mediating efforts between the various political forces in Libya. On Monday, the EU appointed a new special envoy to Libya in tandem with the Arab League's announcement that it intended to do the same in order to assist Libya in overcoming its problems and curbing the deterioration in security due to insufficient police and military forces. On a note of particular concern to Egypt, sources in the Libyan chiefs of staff department denied that Libya was planning to dig a trench along the length of its border with Egypt. They said that this had only been an idea raised during a recent meeting of the chiefs of staff, adding that no decision had been taken.
