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Tripoli, 7 March 2014:
The Higher National Elections Commission will be instructed by Congress to plan for elections for a replacement to . . .[restrict]the General National Congress (GNC) by the end of the month, the President of Congress Nuri Abu Sahmain has said.
“It is important to inform you that the GNC has reached a consensus to go to early elections as soon as possible,” Abu Sahmain told yesterday’s Friends of Libya conference in Rome. “The new election law will be handed to the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) at a time not later than the end of March 2014.”
The move, he said, was in response to the wishes of the Libyan people “on the street.” It was also within the framework of a democratic mechanism that stuck to the legitimacy accepted by the Libyan people through the ballot box, Abu Sahmain said.
Pressure on Congress to dissolve itself and for there to be a replacement legislature has been growing for weeks. Responding to that pressure, it set up the February Committee to come up with plans for elections for a new legislature and a state president if the draft for the new constitution were not ready by July.
Last Sunday, protestors demanding Congress go trashed its debating chamber and other offices.
The February Committee subsequently announced its proposals for a new legislature.
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