PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Libyan minority groups to shun constitution vote
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Three Libyan ethnic minorities announced on Wednesday that they would neither nominate candidates nor vote in the election to constitute a constitution drafting committee, scheduled to begin work within six months.
The ethnic minorities, from the Amazigh, Tibu and Tuareg communities, said their grouse was over a law passed on Tuesday which makes provision for the election, by popular votes, of 60 people to draft a charter, saying that such a constitutional committee would not be "fully representative".
The committee will be composed of the 60 elected members, 20 from the Tripolitania in the west, 20 from Cyrenaica in the east and 20 from Fezzan in the south.
Six seats were reserved for minorities - two for each ethnic minority - while six other seats will go to women.
A group of 12 Amazigh, Tibu and Tuareg lawmakers said that a consensus of members - rather than just a majority - should be required to decide on cultural and other issues affecting them.
"The writing of the Libyan constitution will be based on the vote of the majority and not on the concept of agreement," Giuma Kusa, of the national Tibu assembly, said in a statement on behalf of the groups.
"There will be no voice for minorities, our representatives would be purely symbolic," Kusa said.
"The Libyan people have suffered from neglect, injustice and repression, but some of its components, including the Amazigh, Tuareg and Tibu, have suffered more than others," he said in the statement.
-0- PANA AD/IN/JSG/JEN/VAO 18July2013
The ethnic minorities, from the Amazigh, Tibu and Tuareg communities, said their grouse was over a law passed on Tuesday which makes provision for the election, by popular votes, of 60 people to draft a charter, saying that such a constitutional committee would not be "fully representative".
The committee will be composed of the 60 elected members, 20 from the Tripolitania in the west, 20 from Cyrenaica in the east and 20 from Fezzan in the south.
Six seats were reserved for minorities - two for each ethnic minority - while six other seats will go to women.
A group of 12 Amazigh, Tibu and Tuareg lawmakers said that a consensus of members - rather than just a majority - should be required to decide on cultural and other issues affecting them.
"The writing of the Libyan constitution will be based on the vote of the majority and not on the concept of agreement," Giuma Kusa, of the national Tibu assembly, said in a statement on behalf of the groups.
"There will be no voice for minorities, our representatives would be purely symbolic," Kusa said.
"The Libyan people have suffered from neglect, injustice and repression, but some of its components, including the Amazigh, Tuareg and Tibu, have suffered more than others," he said in the statement.
-0- PANA AD/IN/JSG/JEN/VAO 18July2013
