The Libyan Constitution has still not been approved by the Libyan Parliament. Last April, the Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) submitted the finalized draft to the Parliament in order to pass a regulating law for the national referendum on the Constitution. However, this long-awaited right has been denied by several parties under various pretexts.

The Libyan Constitution has still not been approved by the Libyan Parliament. Last April, the Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) submitted the finalized draft to the Parliament in order to pass a regulating law for the national referendum on the Constitution. However, this long-awaited right has been denied by several parties under various pretexts.

The General Authority of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in the interim government issued a statement in July recommending the rejection of the draft, as it contains several irregularities that contradict Islamic law, national security and social peace. The Authority also claimed that the draft worked against justice and equality in dividing resources and wealth in public institutions.

Lack of professionalism

According to its statement, the Awqaf Authority formed a Communication Committee to review the draft thoroughly and submitted its remarks to the CDA before issuing the draft, but the latter ignored them, the Authority claimed.

In response, Hadi Buhamra, a member of the Rights and Freedoms Committee at the CDA said the Awqaf Authority’s committee did not read the draft within a comprehensive legal context and that their remarks tackled issues “that do not even exist” in the draft. Burhama said the Fatwa Authority “probably heard about it in the media,” which jeopardizes their credibility.

Buhamra explained that the Communication Committee included in their remarks their rejection of the freedom of belief, which is not provided for in the submitted draft. The committee, he added, demanded the return to the 1951 Constitution, which explicitly provides for the freedom of belief, which makes their study of the draft “unprofessional and legally inaccurate in many respects.”

Moreover, Buhamra said the Fatwa Authority objected to the draft constitution because it recognizes the equality between male and female citizens, provides for the direct election of the head of state and acknowledges political as well as partisan pluralism, which all contradicts its agenda.

Deliberate obstruction

The referendum law was obstructed between 21 April 2014, on which day the CDA commenced its work and 19 April 2016, when the draft was finalized and ready for voting in accordance with the constitutional declaration and Law No. 17, regulating the CDA’s work and the submission of the draft on 26 April to the Parliament.

The Fatwa Authority was not alone in putting up barriers; some members of the CDA filed lawsuits against delivering the draft to the parliament and even some MPs refrained from attending the parliament sessions in order to prevent the quorum required to vote on the referendum law, which all negatively impacted the overall context to support the project.

MP for Zintan area Abdulsalam Nasseih said some MPs oppose the idea of preparing a new draft constitution for the country and, therefore, intentionally do not attend the sessions.

Nasseih, who supports the urgent enactment of the referendum law, also stressed that the delay in passing the law and voting on it would further complicate the issue, especially if the political agreement was included in the Constitutional Declaration whereby the referendum law would require ratification by the Presidential Council as well as the parliament – this will be difficult to achieve due to the escalating disputes inside these institutions.

The law is ready

CDA member Maraje Ali Nuh said the Referendum Law expected to be passed by the Parliament is ready and a committee was formed comprising members of the CDA, parliament and Electoral Commission. The committee, he added, prepared a law that ‘fits the current phase’ and it was delivered to the parliament for voting and approval.

Nuh also explained that the draft constitution came to light after countless obstacles to the work of the CDA, which represented all segments of society due to different orientations, contradicted values and regional affiliations which affected perceptions of some issues in the draft.

“We were finally able to finalize the draft which is currently stuck at the Parliament without any legal justification for all this delay in passing the law,” he said.

No comment

We tried to reach a number of the MPs opposing the draft constitution, but most of them refused to comment. We also tried to communicate with the MPs representing the federal current, but they evaded providing any straight answer; one leading figure – who preferred anonymity – only said, “Let them meet and we will see what happens.”

This deliberate procrastination and postponement of the parliament session incited some calls to pass the constitution without a national referendum since the CDA is elected by the people. Hence, the draft can be approved by the legislative authority of the parliament without the need for a national referendum.