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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 5 April 2016:
Deputy President of the . . .[restrict]House of Representatives (HoR) Emhemed Shouaib has called on members of the State Council to show political wisdom.
His reaction, in a statement received directly by Libya Herald, comes on the back of today’s fast moving political events in Tripoli where the State Council, born out of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) of Skhirat, Morocco, held its first ever official meeting.
The State Council is made up of former General National Congress (GNC) members. It held its first formal meeting today.
Moreover, controversially, it also went ahead and passed a constitutional amendment to the 2011 Transitional Constitutional Declaration (TCD) legalising the LPA which would in turn make the Presidency Council (PC) and its Government of National Accord (GNA) legal.
This step has raised much objection from many analysts and observers, but more pertinently from the GNC’s counter parts in the LPA, members of the HoR. The common interpretation of the LPA reads that it is the job of the HoR to legalize the PC and GNA through the passing of a constitutional amendment.
It will be recalled that since the forceful occupation of Tripoli by pro-GNC militias and the resurrection of the rump GNC and the formation of its Salvation Government in the summer of 2014, the GNC has had absolutely no international recognition.
The State Council today gave as one of its reasons for its controversial and possibly Libya-splitting action as the political void caused by the HoR. The reference is to the HoR’s internal disunity and its failure to meet with the necessary quorum since January in five consecutive meetings.
As a result, the HoR has failed to either vote on the PC/GNA proposed government nor to pass the needed constitutional amendment.
In today’s reaction Shouaib said: ‘‘At a meeting whose legal conditions were unmet, and that lacks political wisdom and in disregard to the spirit of the document that we agreed upon to be our constitution in this transition stage’’.
‘‘Ladies and gentlemen attending the meeting (of the State Council in Tripoli today) tried to pre-empt time and to burn through the various stages (of the LPA) and promoted interpretations and explanations, avoiding the facts of the (Libyan Political) agreement’’.
‘This may spoil the harmonious climate which we value. Therefore, I call on all those who attended the State Council meeting today to avoid skipping ahead that may increase the complexity of the situation, and cause confusion’’.
‘‘I stress the need for the commitment to the LPA document and of its provisions and prescribed functions and powers for each body (HoR and GNC). We should strive to create a spirit of cooperation away from the desire to overrun events or the search for publicity gains’’, concluded the HoR Deputy president. [/restrict]
