By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 23 June 2014:
Libya’s Tebu community may boycott the House of Representatives election on 25 June. They say that still waiting . . .[restrict]for the General National Congress to spell out its detailed acceptance of the Consensus Principal.
This is that at least two-thirds of the entire 60-member Constituent Assembly including all six Amazigh, Tebu and Tuareg members have to agree to proposals in the draft constitution on the name of the state, its identity, flag, national anthem and language(s).
Congress agreed in general terms to accept the principle in March but not in terms acceptable to the Tebu or Amazigh communities.
The Amazigh are definitely shunning Wednesday’s vote over the issue, as they did the 20 February elections for the Constitutional Assembly. There are no candidates standing in the two largely Amazigh subs constituencies of Jadu and Zuwara, although three candidates are standing in Nalut, which is also largely Amazigh.
During the February elections, Tebus prevented the arrival of election material and ballot papers in the southern district of Murzuk and boycotted the polling stations in Kufra. There were also attacks on polling centres in Obari area which resulted in other stations there being closed. These were also blamed on Tebus.
Members of the Tebu community now say that because there has been no move on the Consensus Principle they expect members to shun Wednesday’s vote.
The government says that it will provide full security to prevent disruptions such as happened at Obari and Murzuk four months ago. Meanwhile, having trained its polling centre employees and received its ballots, the southern town of Obari says is ready for Election Day on 25 June.
“Today we finished a four-part training session for our employees and received our ballots,” head of the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) committee in Obari, Saleh Abu Ali Salah, told the Libya Herald.
According to Salah, the constituency which includes Murzuk and Ghat, is expecting a good turnout at the polls.
“The number of those registered is relatively good, and we expect that things will run fairly smoothly on Election Day,” he added. [/restrict]
