By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 30 April 2015;
Libya Dawn has demanded that UNSMIL chief Bernardino Leon be fired and it has called . . .[restrict]demonstrations for tomorrow afternoon.
Dawn said the protests should be against the United Nations “and all conspirators against our people and our blessed revolution that confuse the balance of all world powers”.
Dawn’s uncompromising response to Leon’s third draft of the political agreement echoes the reaction of the Muslim Brotherhood -affiliated Justice and Construction Party and the Alwatan party, both of which deplored the draft in the strongest terms.
The rump of the General National Congress has been altogether more cautious. It did not despatch any delegates to Tunis today to meet EU foreign policy head Ferderica Mogherini. It sent instead a message saying that it was still studying the third draft of the political agreement that Leon circulated at the beginning of the week.
However, the GNC has already made it clear that it believes that Leon’s draft does not correspond to the agreement that had been thrashed out at Skhirat in Morocco. Muhamad Emazab, a member of the GNC delegation to the talks said that it would take several days before it could give UNSMIL a prepared response.
Emazab was reported by the Libyan Observer to have said that one of the points of dispute focused on the issue of the two deputy premiers, effectively each chosen from the Dawn and government sides, and their power of veto over the choice of a head of government. It was also clear that the GNC jibbed at the fact that the final decision would be presented to the House of Representatives.
“The points of dispute focus on the mechanism for forming a government and its powers, whereby the suggested mechanism involved two deputies for the prime minister, each chosen from a different body, in order that all would agree on the head of the government, and all three would hold the right to veto any decision, and no decision would be taken without all three agreeing. Only then would these be presented to the HoR and the GNC” .
The Justice and Construction party has said that it is surprised and disappointed that the draft had “turned a blind eye” to all the initiatives that had been put on the table during the talks. It said that the document was “unbalanced” and urged that UNSMIL go back and start again.
A member of the GNC’s negotiation team, Muhamad Emazab, said that members of the GNC are working on preparing a written reply clarifying their comments around the most recent draft aiming to resolve the Libyan crisis. “The reply will need several days to be prepared and delivered to the UN,” said Emazab. He stressed the GNC’s opposition and rejection of the draft due to its being “completely different from what was discussed on the negotiation table.
“The points of dispute focus on the mechanism for forming a government and its powers, whereby the suggested mechanism involved two deputies for the prime minister, each chosen from a different body, in order that all would agree on the head of the government, and all three would hold the right to veto any decision, and no decision would be taken without all three agreeing. Only then would these be presented to the HoR and the GNC.” ”
The Alwatan party, led by Abdul-Hakim Belhaj ,whose nominees won no seats in last June’s general election, deplored the draft as being completely biased. Referring to the Supreme Court’s rejection of the GNC’s enabling legalisation for the election to the new parliament, it said that the draft brought no solution to the legitimacy issue. It also neglected all the initiatives of the Moroccan talks. It called upon UNSMIL to “rephrase the draft” and produce a more “realistic” version which took account of all the objections that had been made against it. [/restrict]
