Libya’s Second Deputy Prime Minister Awad Ibrahim Elbarasi has resigned his post as minister responsible for economic development blaming the government’s failure to establish law & order in Libya and its inability to improve security across the country.

Elbarasi unexpectedly announced his resignation on 4 August at a press conference in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, without informing Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, according to the state run LANA news agency.

Elbarasi is a member of the Justice & Construction Party. He previously worked in the UAE as a vice-president for Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), returning to Libya in February 2011 as an uprising against the 40-year regime of former leader Muammar Gaddafi erupted across the country.

Following Gaddafi’s overthrow in August 2011, he was appointed Electricity Minister in the National Transitional Council (NTC) led by Prime Minister Abdel Rahim el-Keib in 2011. After Libya’s first parliamentary elections in June 2012, Elbarasi was one of three candidates for the premiership, running against Mustafa Abu Shagour and Mahmoud Jibril.