A year has passed since the General National Congress (GNC) was elected. As the first legislative authority elected after the toppling of the Gaddafi regime, the transitional body was authorised to establish the election of a constitutional assembly and to draft the constitution and submit it for voting.
A year teeming with events
A year has passed since the General National Congress (GNC) was elected. As the first legislative authority elected after the toppling of the Gaddafi regime, the transitional body was authorised to establish the election of a constitutional assembly and to draft the constitution and submit it for voting.
A year teeming with events
The first controversies emerged after GNC members awarded themselves very high salaries in comparison to the average income of Libyan citizens. Shortly after, Islamist factions within the GNC started to call for the exclusion of female GNC members on the basis of religion. During the process of creating a government and removing another, a member of parliament was caught drunk and was referred to the public prosecution – before he was set free on the pretext that the detaining body was not legislative.
Political Exclusion Law targets Gaddafi cronies
As partisan forces began to exploit civilian militias, Hasan Al-Amin, an MP known for his opposition to the Gaddafi regime, resigned. Al-Amin declared in his resignation statement last March that he would join the opposition.
In April, Mohammed Magariaf, the former president of parliament, and the GNC turned their attention to detaining members of the former Gaddafi regime, including Abdullah al-Senussi. The Political Exclusion Law, which bans former members of Gaddafi’s government from public office for a distinct period of time, was enacted after the ministries and Parliament were repeatedly besieged and threatened.
Such failures prevented GNC Head Magariaf from keeping his job. The man’s steadfast opposition to Gaddafi throughout decades was not enough to appease the opposition, who threatened him with exclusion on the pretext that he headed the Auditors Office in 1970s. Magariaf resigned in May 2013.
Parties threaten mass GNC walkout
Nori Abu Sahmin, of Berber origin, was elected as Magariaf’s successor. After one year, the GNC passed legislation to elect the constitutional assembly.
Shortly before the vote, the congress was experiencing hard times. Members of various trends resigned and others were threatened with expulsion. The National Forces Alliance, known to be affiliated to the liberal trend, declared that its 39 members, roughly 20 per cent of all 200 Parliamentary seats, would boycott votes. The Berber Supreme Council then threatened to withdraw all Berber members if the Berber language continued to be alienated on a national level.
Amidst the chaos, members were called on, through a Facebook statement on July 16, to attend a key vote about how future MPs should be selected.
Some attended, others were absent. Dr. Giuma Ahmad Atigha was the first vice president to resign. Like Magariaf, Atigha feared the Political Exclusion Law would catch up with him sooner or later.
Quota for women and minorities in GNC
The congress passed the law, accomplishing one of its core tasks after a period of chaos. The law defined the form and specializations of the assembly and outlined the assembly’s composition: 60 chairs, with 10 per cent to be allocated for women and another 10 per cent for minorities.
Among criticism of the new law, Berbers lamented that the GNC failed to give legal status to their language. This led to a boycott of the Constitutional Assembly elections as well as a call upon Berber members to quit the GNC, according to a statement issued by TOMAST, a Berber civil society spokesbody.
Berbers angered
As tensions with Berber representatives grew, history recorded the assassination of the first Libyan politician. Lawyer Abdulsalam Al-Mismari was targeted in broad daylight and before his friends.
Meanwhile core public sectors needed to be addressed: electricity, oil exportation, port closures.
“The widening of the gap between the political and military wings in Libya, the absence of a mechanism regulating weapons and the delay in achieving transitional justice, have delayed national reconciliation,” says Dr. Abdul Al-Hamid Al-Ne’mi, former nominee for the position of prime minister.
“Power is in the hands of the elite…abroad”
Al-Ne’mi believes this has resulted in “the emergence of power centers representing economic and social forces dominating the political scene in addition to the increase of clannish and regional fanaticisms which warn of a civil war.” He added: “Power is in the hands of elites that belong to the Libyan opposition abroad and do not have the required acceptance by the Libyan street.”
Al-Ne’mi stressed the importance of extending the GNC’s mandate. “The GNC’s term should be extended for another year in order for it to be able to accomplish the building of the new executive and legislative matrix,” Al-Ne’Mi told Correspondents.
National police and army needed
Al-Ne’mi recommends “forming a national unity government of figures of competency, integrity and national sense to form a police and general security higher council immediately; a higher military council of key armed forces and a national army and police service.”
At the political level, Al-Ne’mi believes that “partisan activity is suspended until a permanent constitution and a new party law are issued, monitoring services are established, municipality councils are elected on the basis of individual nomination and simple majority.”
Abdulfattah Bo Rawaq al-Shalawi, a GNC member representing Darna City, says the National Council has met milestones, despite the setbacks. “According to the Provisional Constitutional Declaration and with reference to the tasks of the GNC, it could be said that the GNC tasks were accomplished except those with which the Constituent Committee was assigned including the election of the Sixty Committee, drafting of the Constitution and holding the general elections.”
Al-Shalawi says the GNC’s achievements should be weighed up against the challenges it faces. The negative heritage left by Gaddafi’s regime, in addition to the multiplicity of militias and the wide spread use of weapons have affected the GNC’s performance. Many events also required strict and immediate stances, not to forget the demands of citizens and their urge to have them met,” says al-Shalawi.
It has survived a year, but the nascent Parliament’s challenges undoubtedly lie ahead.
