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By Libya Herald reporter.
Malta, 6 February 2015:
A . . .[restrict]Libyan lower court in the eastern city of Al-Beida overturned the decision of the Supreme Court in Tripoli that ruled that the elections of Libya’s House of Representatives (HoR) were unconstitutional.
The Preliminary Court ruling on Thursday suspended the previous ruling of 6 November 2014 declaring it null and void.
One of the Advocates who took the case to court, Amal Bughagis, told Alwatan newspaper that the decision was a landmark in the Libyan political process. Bughagis, said that the decision ended the GNC’s tenure, by virtue of a judicial decision, and not a political statement.
Bughagis added that there is an earlier ruling by the Supreme Court that ruled that a lower court could suspend a ruling of a higher court, including that of the Supreme Court.
In her last comment, Bughagis was answering the question of whether a lower court could overrule a higher court.
It will be recalled that Libya’s Supreme Court had ruled on 6 November 2015 that the June 2015 House of Representatives elections were unconstitutional. In its ruling it said that the GNC ‘’February Committee’’ set up by the GNC in February 2014 to set up new elections for a body to replace the GNC, was in itself unconstitutional.
The ruling in Tripoli was not recognized by the House of Representatives, nor by the international community on the basis that the court sitting in Tripoli may have been coerced.
Libya’s current ‘’social contract’’, the Transitional Constitutional Declaration of August 2011, drafted during the 2011 Libyan revolution that overthrew the Qaddafi dictatorship, provided for the election of one transition parliamentary body, the GNC, whilst the constitution was being drafted.
Once a constitution was accepted by the Libyan people, the GNC would organize elections for a fully mandated parliament. The Transitional Constitution did not provide for the election of a second transition parliament; the HoR.
It is worth recalling that the outgoing GNC accepted the election results, but fell out with the newly elected HoR on the technicalities of which city was the handover to take place in. The HoR insisted on the handover taking place in Tobruk , whilst the GNC insisted that the handover took take place in Tripoli.
The HoR refused to meet in Tripoli and convened without the overwhelming majority of GNC members being present in Tobruk. Pro GNC militias, meanwhile, invaded Tripoli, forcing the Pro HoR Zintani-led militias out of Tripoli. The pro HoR government was also forced to flee to Tobruk and settle in Al-Beida.
The Pro GNC militias subsequently set up their own government and prime minister in Tripoli.
Fighting has escalated between the two GNC and HoR factions in the western and the oil crescent regions of Libya. [/restrict]
