Angry demonstrations in Libya.. Aqila Saleh announces the appointment of a governor to the Central Bank and Al-Mashri reveals the points of contention in the Geneva negotiations

The Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives, Aqila Saleh, announced the appointment of Ali Al-Hibri, Vice President of the Central Bank of Libya, as governor of the bank.

Today, Friday, Saleh published a message issued on Tuesday, in which he said that Al-Hibri is the designated governor of the bank, a replacement for the current governor, Sadiq Al-Kabeer, until the completion of the work of unifying the management of the Central Bank, and the approval of this by the House of Representatives, given that the bank follows the legislative authority, he said.

Saleh sent this official letter to the Prime Minister-designate from the House of Representatives, Fathi Bashagha, the Central Bank of Libya, the Attorney General, and the heads of the Administrative Control Authority and the Audit Bureau of the House of Representatives.

The move departs from a two-year effort to reunite the institutions of a Libyan state divided by years of conflict.

The Geneva negotiations falter

On the other hand, the head of the Supreme Council of State said in a video speech that "the only point I stopped at is that we consider that the way out is a constitutional rule or a draft constitution... This is the only point that the two committees did not agree on during their last meeting in Cairo."

Al-Mashri added that the Supreme Council of State believes that the constitutional rule is the first and fastest in completing the political process.

He explained that despite the agreement with Aqila Saleh during a bilateral meeting in Cairo that the outputs should be a constitutional rule, the members of Parliament are still insisting that the outputs be considered a draft constitution.

Al-Mashri considered that the dispute in the faltering constitutional path in Libya is between two political currents and not between him and the Speaker of Parliament.

Regarding the details of his last meeting with Saleh in Geneva, Al-Mashri said that Aqila Saleh agreed with him that dual nationals should not run for elections, but the parliament delegation demanded after the meeting to cancel this condition, which the delegation of the Supreme Council of State refused to do so.

Al-Mashri confirmed that the State and Parliament are still in contact, adding, "There may be another meeting with Aqila Saleh before Eid al-Adha to discuss differences."

In turn, Saleh issued a statement yesterday in which he said that there is an expected meeting with the State Council after the Eid al-Adha holiday, explaining what was not agreed upon with regard to the right of foreign nationality holders to run for the presidency and sovereign positions.

Geneva had hosted, for 3 days, meetings between the presidents of the House of Representatives and the state to resolve the points of disagreement in the constitutional base leading to the elections, at the invitation of the UN advisor to Libya, Stephanie Williams.

A massive demonstration in Martyrs' Square in the capital, Tripoli (Reuters)

Protests and burning of Parliament

In another context, protests took place in several Libyan cities due to power cuts, especially during the very hot summer months. The demonstrators also denounced the political differences.

During a night demonstration on Friday evening, demonstrators managed to storm the parliament building in Tobruk, and then set the building on fire.

And local media reported that demonstrators closed the center of the city of Al-Bayda in protest against the political division.

Heavy security presence in Martyrs' Square in Tripoli (Anadolu Agency)

Earlier on Friday, hundreds of people gathered in Tripoli's Martyrs' Square, chanting slogans calling for electricity and denouncing each of the country's two rival governments.

Other protests took place in Benghazi, and protesters in the town of al-Qubba in eastern Libya demanded the fall of all governments and political entities due to the low standards of living.

The Libyan electricity sector suffers from structural problems, and the National Unity Government pledged last year to dissolve them, and issued contracts to work in many power plants, but the political division prevented their implementation.