TRIPOLI – The National Congress has begun debate over the selection of the committee tasked with drafting Libya's permanent Constitution. Under the 2011 Constitutional Declaration, Congress was supposed to have selected the committee within 30 days of its first session, but delays in selecting the new Prime Minister and other crises have prevented the legislative body from devoting serious attention to the issue until now. Central to Congress's deliberations is the manner in which members of the committee should be chosen. Article 30 of the 2011 Constitution states that the Congress shall be responsible for “selection of a statutory body from among non [NTC] members, which shall develop a draft constitution for the country.” Lawyers have subsequently been debating what is meant by the word “selection”, generally agreed to be a vague term, but almost all are convinced it does not mean elections by the general public. However, on July 5, just two days before the July 7 Congressional elections, the outgoing National Transitional Council announced Constitutional Amendment No. 3 (2012) to the Constitutional Declaration. The amendment specified that the committee would be chosen by direct and free elections, as opposed to its being chosen by the Congress. That decision sparked widespread criticism from both Congressional candidates and other sections of the public who felt the NTC was wrong to make such a momentous decision in the twilight of its term in office. Others objected on the principle that time-consuming and costly public elections were not the best way to choose a highly specialist body such as this. At the time, the general mood was that Congress was likely to overturn this decision of the NTC, and that still appears to be the case at present. “Most favor the Congress doing the choosing,” said Mokhtar Elatrash, an independent Congressman from Khoms. “If we're going to do public elections it's going to be ridiculous. You cannot choose an elite specialist body like this through general elections.” Ahmed Langhi, an independent Congressman from Benghazi, concurred that a majority inside Congress favored reversing the NTC's decision: “These discussions have now begun, and most members support the view that Congress should choose the committee members rather than elections.” However, the mood among many of Langhi's constituents in Benghazi is rather less sanguine about the possible change. “The more we see the National Congress at work and how dysfunctional they are, the more I think elections are the best option,” said Hana Al-Gallal, head of the Benghazi National Council for Freedom and Human Rights in Libya. – Libya Herald
