TRIPOLI — Libya's interim Prime Minister
Abdulhamid Dbeibah on Sunday called for a constitution to be established before
holding delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.
اضافة اعلان
"Now more than ever we need a
constitution that protects the country and its citizens, and that governs the
elections," Dbeibah said.
Libya collapsed into years of violence after
the 2011 overthrow and killing, during a
NATO-backed revolt, of dictator Muammar
Gaddafi who scrapped the country's constitution in 1969.
Rival power bases and administrations arose
in the country's east and west.
After a landmark ceasefire in 2020, a UN-led
process saw elections scheduled for December 24 last year, but the polls were
postponed after months of tensions, including over divisive candidates and a
disputed legal framework.
Libyans "want free elections that
respect their will, not the extension of the crisis with a new
transition", Dbeibah told a symposium in the capital Tripoli titled:
"The constitution first".
"Our problem today is the absence of a
constitutional base or of a constitution," he said.
The event brought together high-profile
figures from Libya's west including Khaled El-Mechri, who heads the High
Council of State — a Tripoli-based body that is equivalent to Libya's senate
and rivals the House of Representatives, based in the eastern city of Tobruk.
"Certain parties have worsened the
crisis" with "tailor-made" laws favoring certain candidates over
others, Dbeibah charged, referring to House speaker Aguila Saleh's September
decision to ratify a contentious electoral law.
Critics said the move bypassed due process
and favored a bid by Saleh's ally, eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Dbeibah, Saleh and Haftar all put their
names forward for the presidential vote.
An official from the elected commission in
charge of drafting a new constitution, Daou Al-Mansouri, told Sunday's
symposium that the body had in July 2017 submitted a draft constitution to the
House.
The draft was supposed to be put to a
referendum, which has never been organized.
Saleh on Tuesday proposed establishing a new
commission of Libyan and foreign experts to draw up a new draft constitution.
He also called for a new interim government
to be established, and said that by the end of January, a
"definitive" date for the postponed polls needed to be set.
Read more Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
