By Libya Herald reporter.
Tobruk, 15 June 2015:
The House of Representatives (HoR), meeting in Torbuk today, decided to refer Draft No. . . .[restrict]4 to a 19-member committee to assess it and make recommendations for amendments.
The draft was presented last week to members of the UN-brokered Dialogue process by UN envoy Bernardino Leon but has proved controversial with many HoR members and their supporters.
According to HoR member for Aziziya, Ibtisam Salem Rabaieh, there was no support in the House today for the draft as it stood. Members divided into three groups, she said: those who wanted nothing to do with the Dialogue, those who demanded that Draft No. 3 be put back on the table, and those who were prepared to accept No. 4 but with amendments.
The committee would report back to the House “within a short time”, she said. It is thought that will be at least a week.
Defending the draft, Benghazi member Abubakr Buera, who is one of the four HoR delegates in the Dialogue, said that it had to be accepted for the good of the country and the Libyan people, although he too said it needed some changes.
Dissatisfaction was also expressed over the meeting in Cairo yesterday between Leon and 26 members of the HoR at which the UN envoy tried to persuade them to approve Draft No. 4. Five members of the group, including Faraj Buhashim, the HoR’s spokesman, as well as Essa Al-Araibi (Benghazi), Ali Khaled Al-Gatrani (Al-Abyar), Saleh Hashem Al-Tayeh (Tobruk) and Ziad Daghim (Benghazi), walked out of the meeting in protest at what they claimed was Leon’s demand that the HoR approve the draft as it stands and discuss problems with it afterwards.
Buhashim called Leon’s request “unacceptable”. [/restrict]
