‘Butin- Medvedev’ plan to keep Coalition’s presidency within Jarba’s group

Translation by Yusra Ahmed

(Zaman Alwasl) Many members of the western-backed National Coalition said that the opposition leader Ahmed Jarba has retracted his intention for a second term extension.

Source said before that NC leader was seeking to amend Coalition’s rules of procedure to extend his presidency for another year. An attempt was about to divide the coalition and get Jarba out of it, analysts said.

The state of harmony the coalition witnesses recently comes along with the declaration, especially after the return of the withdrawn 44 members before the latest visit to Suadi Arabia, the main supporter to the opposition.

Sources reported to Zaman Alwasl that idea of extension the presidency was cancelled as a result of that come back of the withdrawn members who were mostly from the National Council. That act changed the voters’ number and balance, as Jarba before, relied on his supports among the remaining 70 members as only 37 votes would be enough to win the coalition’s Presidency.

Source added that Jarba was neutral towards the 44 members’ returning as he neither encourage nor discourage it, despite it help in uniting the opposition.

The source confirmed that Jarba has not left his extension project, but the changes in the Coalition pushed him to put it on hold for a while, or he would replace it with Butin- Medvadiv plan, where he could regularly exchange presidency with someone else from his supporters.

Sources added that Jarba and his group in the Coalition might support other figures in June’s election. Bader Jamous and Hadi al-Bahra are among the most expected figures to vote for, which guarantee that decision-making would stay in hands of Jarba’s group.

The plan would not end this June, but it would continue to the following election 6 months later, when Jarba would be legally allegeable to be a candidate for election, applying “Butin- Medvedev plan”.

“All that would not be needed if Jarba found a mean to extend his presidency, without those indirect plans” source ended.