By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 22 January 2014:
Congress has voted for plans committing it to transfer power to a newly elected legislature on . . .[restrict]24 December 2014. The roadmap rests on the condition that the new constitution is drafted and ratified by referendum before that date.
In a statement made to the Department of Public Information following the vote on Sunday, Omar Hemidan, the Congress spokesman, explained that it had agreed by 82 out of 110 members to extent its mandate in the short term but ultimately to relinquish power by December.
The plan is contingent on the workings of the 60-member Committee which, the roadmap stipulates, must ensure a new constitution is produced and ratified in time for legislative elections to be held ahead of the December transfer of power.
However, if by May, insufficient headway has been made by the 60-member Committee on the new constitution and it is clear that the December transfer is not going to happen, then there is Plan B. Elections will be called for a new Congress and it will take over in October while the Constitutional Committee continues its work.
The roadmap was devised in a joint effort between civil society organisations and Congress and was discussed at a press conference led by those same organisations today.
However, there has been dissatisfaction in some quarters with individuals involved calling the plan self-serving. Abdul Rauf Bayt Al-Mal, an activist with the Congress for New Democracy, told the Libya Herald that “Congress did not listen to Libyans’ demands regarding the extension.” He added that the GNC had circumvented a number of organisations, choosing one of dozens of initiatives which served its interests. [/restrict]
