The House of Representatives (HoR) approved Tuesday with a majority vote the suspension of designated Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha and placed him under investigation, naming Minister of Finance of the HoR-appointed government Osama Hammad as acting PM, HoR spokesman Abdullah Blehiq said.
Several HoR members said earlier in press statements that the suspension and possible sacking of Bashagha came after his failure to assume office as PM and govern all across Libya, in addition to being unable to enter any of the government's institutions in Tripoli.
The HoR members indicated that there were "observations" about Bashagha's performance, especially the lack of clarification of the sources for his funds, which amounted to billions to spend on his government. They also referred to other complaints submitted by the ministers of Bashagha's government that they had received no budgets to be able to perform their work.
Earlier on Tuesday and in anticipation of calls by members of the HoR to investigate him and dismiss him, Bashagha assigned his deputy, Ali Al-Gotrani, to become acting PM, according to a letter addressed by Bashagha to the Speaker of the HoR.
Meanwhile, some observers believe that the dismissal of Bashagha could have come within the framework of a power-sharing deal between the Dbeibah government in western Libya and Haftar, the strongman in the east, especially after the failure of Haftar, Aqila Saleh, and the eastern camp's bet on Bashagha, who was not even able to enter Tripoli and was forced to stay in Benghazi, like his predecessor, Abdullah Al-Thani, who remained the head of a parallel government that did not receive any international recognition.
