Many hurdles lie ahead for the post-revolutionary Libyan constitution, although there has been a trend towards an agreement to return to the post-independence 1951 constitution as amended in 1963, in order to salvage the country from its current political deadlock. For several days running this week, Libya's General National Congress (GNC) debated a bill of law for the election of a Constituent Assembly that would be responsible for drafting the constitution, but no progress was made towards a compromise solution on some controversial issues. Some observers blame the lack of progress on deliberate foot-dragging by GNC members bent on steering this interim governing body away from its chief purpose. Shortly before this, on 9 July, GNC spokesman Omar Hamidan announced that the assembly was still discussing the Constituent Assembly elections bill and that it had completed 50 out of 53 articles. However, there remained sharp controversy over two basic articles that addressed four crucial issues, namely: the electoral system that would be used — individual tickets, electoral lists or a mixture of both; the representation of socio-cultural components of society; the allocation of seats for women; and electoral zones and their relative quotas of seats. Debate in the GNC over these two articles is likely to drag on because the issues they address are subject to controversy not only among the rival political blocs in the GNC but among the public at large. The problem is that these issues are so central to social peace and national security in Libya that there must be a broad consensus over them among diverse political and social forces in society. Even from a practical standpoint, a broad consensus will be needed for the GNC to move forward on the bill that will require the support of 120 of the Congress's 200 members in order to pass. Among the bill's articles that have been resolved is that stipulating the qualifications of candidates for the 60-member assembly tasked with drafting a permanent constitution. In order to be eligible, a candidate must be at least 25-years-old on voting day and not among those identified by the political isolation law that went into force in June. In addition, candidates may not be affiliated with any political party or entity, or with any security agency or militia. Although the bill is still a long way from going to a vote, last week's discussions triggered an angry initial reaction among at least one segment of Libyan society. The Higher Amazigh Council announced that it would boycott the Constituent Assembly elections and withdraw from the GNC in protest at what it described as the tokenistic representation of social components in the assembly. In a statement it released to the press, the council added, “these elections no longer hold any importance to Libyan Amazigh and they are indifferent to the results.” An ethnic minority the majority of whom reside in the Nafusa Mountain area in northwestern Libya, the Amazigh are seeking to have their cultural and linguistic rights incorporated into the new constitution. A number of Libyan officials have issued pledges to work towards this end, while further raising Amazigh hopes is the fact that the new head of the GNC, the highest authority in post-Gaddafi Libya, is himself of Amazigh origin. GNC President Nuri Abu Sahmain hails from the city of Nalut in western Libya, near the border with Tunisia. The Higher Amazigh Council's decision to boycott the Constituent Assembly elections and withdraw its representatives from the GNC has put the current president in an awkward position. Abu Sahmain will be forced to intervene, in his capacity as a fellow Amazigh this time, in order to dissuade the council from following through on its decision. It should be noted that there are other social components that may also be prejudiced by the bill, although these have not been as quick as the Amazigh to voice objections. This is not to suggest that there has not been mounting frustration with respect to the performance of the GNC. On 6 July, the Libyan Tribes and Cities Forum convened in Zintan, a city roughly 130km southwest of Tripoli in the Nafusa Mountains area, beneath the rubric: “Towards the realisation of the goals of the 17 February Revolution and the construction of the constitutional state.” The forum's organisers said its purpose was to discuss “the weak performance of the GNC and the delay in the realisation of the constitutional entitlements that it has been tasked to bring into being in accordance with the interim constitutional declaration”. The forum may send a jolt through political circles sufficiently strong enough to precipitate an upheaval in the patterns of both old and new political and tribal alliances. Supporting this forecast are signs of an imminent agreement between the two largest political blocs in the country over the idea of resuscitating the 1951 constitution as amended in 1963. However, the fact that this prospect has been accompanied by calls for the return to the constitutional monarchical system suggests that the country is headed for even more heated rounds of political conflict in forthcoming days. Commenting on the role in which tribal allegiances may play in this phase, Libyan writer Abdel-Malek Al-Safrani said: “We should not forget that the tribe, in spite of its known shortcomings, has remained one of the factors of stability in our country since the revolution until now. This stability, as fragile as it has been amidst the anarchy of arms and porous national borders, confuses many observers abroad. Yet, while they are unable to find an explanation for this, Libyans know that the religious factor and the tribal/family social factor are chief sources of stability and conflict resolution or containment.” Al-Safrani went on to explain: “Tribalism has many negative characteristics. Muammar Gaddafi capitalised on these during most of his years in power, in order to consolidate his hold on power, bring the people to their knees, and suppress talents and capacities. But the tribe will continue to play an influential role under our current circumstances. Therefore, all who are fighting to keep the revolution on course and to realise its aims of social change must work to help the positive features of the tribe prevail. The interim goal should be to stimulate a revolution within the tribe, not a revolution against it.” The Libyan Tribes and Cities Forum was not warmly greeted by some political forces who regarded it as backwards moving. Some critics charged that its organisers were pursuing ambiguous aims with possibly destructive intent, including reintroducing figures associated with the former regime into the forefront of the political scene. This is the reaction of the Justice and Construction Party, the political arm of the Libyan chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, as voiced by one of its officials, Ahmed Ibrahim. Still, it appears that the forum marked a major turning point for Libya, especially given that it was held against the backdrop of a very fraught political climate and a vicious contest between Islamist-oriented militias supported from Misrata and tribal militias from Zintan over control of the Libyan capital.
