Photo Credit: World Bulletin
Libya’s interim parliament voted yesterday to allow a special committee additional time to write a new constitution, a step that extends the mandate beyond the original February 7th deadline. Gulf News deemed the vote: “key to advancing the country’s transition to democracy.” The vote comes months into deadlock within Libya’s interim leadership, which is caused by disagreements between the leading National Forces Alliance party and the Justice and Construction Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya. The committee will draft the country’s first permanent constitution since Muammer Qaddafi came to power in 1969.
The General National Congress (GNC), however, also approved a roadmap that calls for, “early elections if a special 60-member committee fails by May to show progress toward finishing the new constitution.” Sa’ad Bensharrada, an independent member of the GNC said, “We have issued the roadmap, giving the exact dates, and now we will leave it to the people to decide.” If the committee does advance, the GNC will stay on until December to lend support in finalizing the constitution before elections are held at the end of the year.
Salam Tekbali stated, “today, Libya is technically a democracy with an elected parliament, but unfortunately, not much has changed beyond the mechanical processes of elections. This is especially true with respect to good governance and human rights.” Tekbali continued: ”Despite appeals from International Organizations and Libyan Civil Society, those in charge of this process and their counterparts in the Libyan General National Congress are seemingly unconcerned with the fact that there has been no public dialogue or civic education program to prepare the populous for the most important component of nation building.”