TRIPOLI: Libyans on Thursday marked 11 years since the revolt that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi, but the democracy many hoped for seems as elusive as ever, and many fear a return to conflict.
The anniversary comes as the country, for years plagued by divisions between east and west, finds itself with two rival prime ministers based in the capital Tripoli.
Just weeks after national elections planned for December 24 were indefinitely postponed, the east-based parliament voted to appoint influential former interior minister Fathi Bashagha to replace the interim unity government.
Incumbent Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, appointed as part of a United Nations-driven peace process, has insisted he will only hand over power to an elected government.
The resulting showdown has sparked fears of another conflict — not between east and west, but within Tripoli itself.
As the anniversary approached, the streets of the capital were
lined with the red, black and green flags adopted after Gaddafi’s overthrow.
Concerts and fireworks are planned for Friday — a day late due to bad weather — in Tripoli’s Martyrs’ Square, where Gaddafi once gave a famous, desperate speech before the “February 17 revolution” swept him from power.
On Thursday, Dbeibah attended a passing-out ceremony for army recruits at a base on the edge of the capital.
In a speech, army chief Mohamed al Haddad vowed that Libyans “will never forget the martyrs of the February revolution, who sacrificed their lives for a democratic state”.
The political vacuum that followed the Nato-backed uprising sparked a bitter power struggle, fuelled by regional and tribal rivalries, as well as the involvement of outside groups.
And despite the country’s vast oil wealth — the biggest-proven reserves in Africa — many Libyans are living in poverty.
“The situation even got worse,” said Ihad Doghman, 26.
A civil servant by day and a grocer by night, he holds down two jobs, like many of his compatriots, as “it’s the only way to get by”.
Since Gaddafi’s ouster, Libya has had no fewer than nine governments and two full-scale civil wars — but has yet to organise a presidential election. — AFP
