By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 21 May 2013:
Finishing touches are being put to the draft law on the elections for the “Commission of . . .[restrict]60” which will draw up the new constitution. It should be ready for submission to Congress next week according to Constitution Election Committee member Wissam Suqair. The Committee was set up on 10 April under the chairmanship of Benghazi Congressman Suleiman Zubi andt given 45 days to submit its proposals to Congress. That gives it until Saturday.
According to Shaban Abu Seta, one of the three congressmen on the committee, the draft is ready but there are some details to be ironed out regarding seats allocations for women and other groups.
The Commission will be elected on the basis of 20 members each from Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan – Libya’s historic regions – and deliberately follows the structure of the Commission of 60 that drew up Libya’s 1951 independence constitution.
Meanwhile, the local council in Beida has called for the Commission, once elected, to be headquartered in the town.
Under King Idris, Beida effectively acted as the other capital of Libya, with government and parliament regularly moving there en bloc from Tripoli. Viewed by many as the political heart of Cyrenaica, it was recently suggested that Congress go back to the old system and hold some of its sessions there.
The call for the Commission to be based in Beida is unlikely to find an immediate answer. Speaking from the town, where he and Suqair had been in consultation with local officials, Abu Seta said that seat of Commision would be decided by Congress.
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