CbI View - Libya prepares for urgent constitutional and security challenges

Sovereignty, governance and security remain the overriding priorities as Libya’s outgoing National Transitional Council (NTC) prepares to hand over power to the newly elected 200-member National Congress.  The congress will be responsible for overseeing the next stage of Libya’s transition, leading to further elections next year once a constitution has been written and approved by a referendum.  The congress and the executive that it will appoint once a ruling majority is formed must also kick-start economic and social development, without which the population will speedily turn against these new democratic institutions.

Mahmoud Jibril, the leader of the broadly secular and liberal National Forces Alliance, is most likely to forge a majority as the National Congress prepares to meet for the first time.  He has credibility as a capable technocrat and wartime interim prime minister, but his didactic manner and past job as planning minister associated with the unrealised reform efforts of Saif Al-Islam Al-Qadhafi, son of late leader Muammar Al-Qadhafi, may make him hard for some revolutionaries to work with.  The Islamist parties which performed weakly in voting for the 80 party list candidates are expected to regain some ground when the allegiance of the 120 individual candidates becomes clear.  This means that the question of what role Islamic sharia law should have in the new constitution could become an important dividing line.
Published in African Energy, Issue 236 - 26 July 2012. Read more