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By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 4 February 2014:
Libya will elect a new congress and a president as head of state towards . . .[restrict]in June if, by early May it is clear that the 60-member constitution-drafting Committee to be elected in 16 days’ time says that it cannot come up with a new constitution by July.
The GNC approved late on Monday evening a crucial amendment to the roadmap for its dissolution initially agreed last month.
The roadmap’s prime goal, Plan A, is that the 60-member Committee, which has to start work a week after the full election results are declared, probably around early March, will draw up a constitution within 120 days, see it approved in a referendum, ratified by Congress and elections held to a new legislature, preferably in time for a handover of power on 24 December, Independence Day, although it is now suggested this could even be as late as July or September next year.
If, however, 60 days after the Committee’s first meeting, it is clear that the deadline is not going to be met, then elections would be called for a new Congress. It would take over in October while the Constitutional Committee continues its work.
Yesterday’s amendment, approved by 146 Congress members, set out the timescale for Plan B. Under it, a Congressional committee would monitor the situation and, if told by the Constitutional Committee in May that the Plan A deadline was impractical, would table a law in Congress for presidential and fresh Congressional elections within 30 days.
If, on the other hand, the Constitutional Committee says that it can produce a constitution by the 120 days from its first meeting (probably some time in July), then Congress will draw up plans for a referendum to approve the new constitution by a two-thirds majority within 30 days from the date of its issuance. If approved, the Constitutional Committee will then ratify it, passing it to Congress for final approval.
However, if it is fails to gain approval in the referendum, the Committee will have to redraft it and represent it to the public within 30 days.
Once approved, Congress will set in motion elections for the new constitution’s legislature. A law authorising them will have to be passed within 30 days and the elections held within a subsequent 120 days.
The results would be announced within 30 days of the poll and the legislature’s first meeting held, at which point the GNC would hand over power.
Whatever happens, Congress decided, the transition must be complete within 18 months of the first meeting of the Constitutional Committee – which means September 2015. Any extension would have to be approved in a referendum
The roadmap is Congress’ answer to strong public demands that Congress be dissolved by this Friday – 7 February. The date has been extrapolated from the former National Transitional Council’s August 2011 Constitutional Declaration which originally intended that the Constitutional Committee would be appointed by Congress and that there would be a constitution up and running by now. [/restrict]
