Since the founding committee for drafting the constitution started working on 21 April 2014, people have been asking the same question: “What are the members of the committee doing and why has it taken so long without any real results?
While committee heads and members decided not to share too much information with the media and were secretive about their meetings, their many movements and unsteadiness underlie that internal conflicts and external pressure are the reasons for the delay and obstruction of the committee’s work.
Since the founding committee for drafting the constitution started working on 21 April 2014, people have been asking the same question: “What are the members of the committee doing and why has it taken so long without any real results?
While committee heads and members decided not to share too much information with the media and were secretive about their meetings, their many movements and unsteadiness underlie that internal conflicts and external pressure are the reasons for the delay and obstruction of the committee’s work.
Two years since the launch of the project, conflicts increased and people were ranked based on their stand, region and allegiance. This all showed that this body was not different from any other Libyan institute governed by conflicts and will eventually fall apart.
Will the committee produce an approved draft of the constitution and hold it up for a referendum or would it follow a fait accompli and submit a second draft opposed by numerous members for various reasons?
Boycotters
The committee is currently meeting in Libya again. Its first meeting took place on 10 April 2016 after touring Malta, Tunisia and the Sultanate of Oman. Following this return to Libya, 17 members who opposed the meetings abroad, which they deemed a breach to internal regulations, joined the new meeting. Attendance reached 37 members out of 52.
As for the boycotters, they fall into two categories: western regional boycotters who include 11 members who accuse committee head Ali Tarhouni of breaching internal regulations since he announced recently in a press conference that the draft constitution would be presented to the public for referendum once the working committee is finished, without first going through the members for discussion and modification. These boycotters refused to attend the committee meetings in Al Bayda although the draft was discussed there.
The rest of the boycotters include the Amazigh, Toubou, and Tuareg whose demands are related to their cultural rights, including constitutionalizing their language and preserving their cultural as well as heritage rights. The committee members are communicating with them to include them in the internal meetings and the closest of them to return to their seats are the Tuareg.
Boycotters of the west
According to committee member Salem Kashlaf, the boycotters of the western region believe that all meetings currently taking place are not legal. Kashlaf and ten other members said they would not acknowledge the draft if it does not go through the members for voting, as it is otherwise a breach to internal regulations.
“Passing the draft during a press conference by the committee head in Tunisia shocked everyone,” Kashlaf said. “The draft needs to be discussed in official meetings inside the country before announcing it as an official draft, which has not happened.”
Committee head issue
In addition to the many accusations directed against the committee head, he is charged by the Court of Appeals in Al Bayda for the abolition of his capacity since he holds another nationality. The head submitted a request for an appeal, which will be considered by the end of April.
Committee members had also previously gone to the court to dismiss the decision of holding the meetings outside Libya, which was approved by the court in mid May 2015, since such decisions violate the internal regulations.
“The meetings changed locations several times before settling in the Green Mountain in Libya after leaving the Green Mountain in the Sultanate of Oman,” said committee member Ibtisam Bahih.
“The committee head turned around the law through using different terms to describe the meetings set abroad including reference to “workshops” and “consultations” instead of meetings,” she added.
Our inside job
Bahih, who joined the meetings held this week in Libya with 16 of her colleagues, wondered who had the strongest argument; the huge number of members who left the country and accepted to break the law, or the ones who did not leave the country and kept working?
She explained that they continued to hold meetings in Al Bayda for an entire year to search for conflict resolutions in the absence of the rest of the members who attended the meetings abroad or completely boycotted them.
Bahih said since last August, the committee did not have enough money to pay employees’ salaries and members’ bonuses. So how then did it have enough money to pay for the transfer and accommodation of members in Tunisia and Oman?
Deeper conflicts
Committee member Etimad Messallati, who boycotted the Oman meetings, said the negotiable subjects that still exist include the system of the government and the capital despite the changes in description. “The capital is political and should have all sovereign headquarters like the constitutional court and the legislation,” Messallati said. “Dividing headquarters between cities means distributing capitals among several cities.”
Southern region committee member Mohammad Lagha agrees with what Messallati said about the conflicts. He stressed that there is a huge congestion among the members and there are attempts to marginalize some of them according to regional backgrounds.
Some members are accused of seeking division while others are accused of returning to the meetings just to receive their financial bonuses. “We want anything we can sign on and we will offer it to the Libyans,” some members said, which is reprehensible according to Ibtisam Bahih.
Suspending the draft
The representative of the south believes that it is necessary to stop writing the constitution until the right climate is available. “War and weapons contaminate the atmosphere. Therefore, we are not able to see clearly,” he said, “We must first clear the area. Is there any country in the world that created a permanent constitution under such circumstances?” he said.
“Is there a country that drafted its constitution in the midst of terrorism that will atone members of the committee? And even if we continue writing the constitution under pressure and terrorism, will the public be satisfied with our work? What does the United Nations Mission want from us in Libya?”
Pressure of UN Mission
Committee Rapporteur Nadia Omran addressed Lagha’s hint about the pressure exerted by the UN mission over the committee and said the UN intervention came upon the request of some members after issuing the draft rejection statement that Tarhouni announced in Tunisia.
Those members that Omran mentioned went to the British ambassador first and asked him to pressure the head of the committee to withdraw the draft. Then, they met the UN envoy Martin Kobler and requested the same thing and even told him that they would not go to Al Bayda if the draft was not withdrawn.
For this reason, according to Omran, Kobler and Tarhouni thought about gathering all members in a neutral location to discuss the draft. The Sultanate of Oman welcomed to host all meetings. However, opponents boycotted those meetings for fear of transcendence.
Most members rejected the proposal of suspending the drafting of the constitution including Nadia Omran and Etimad Mesallati. “Suspending the work of the committee will not have any benefits as the committee was working and taking decisions despite the security situation and the circumstances of the country” Mesallati said.
The fear of suspending the work of the committee at this critical time where claims of separation are rising in the east of the country comes from what might occur as results described as catastrophic on Libya’s unity.
Warnings of a fait accompli that might be pursued by the international powers and the United Nations Mission are rising with the draft of the constitution to resolve the confusion, similar to what was followed with the political agreement and the government of the national accord.
