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By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 13 May 2015:
The House of Representatives (HoR) says it wants to see a national reconciliation conference take . . .[restrict]place to enable Libyans from across the country to lay aside current divisions and forge a new unity.
In a statement published yesterday evening, the HoR emphasised that the primary objective of such a conference would be to rebuild stability and promote the principle of peaceful co-existence between all Libyans. People from every town and city, from every tribe, would be invited and there would be no exceptions.
Such a conference was necessary, the statement read, to put an end to the current destructive war.
The statement also said that the HoR planned to start the ball rolling by inviting representatives from municipal councils and social organisation to form a preparatory committee to arrange such a conference.
In a related development, the President of the House, Ageela Saleh Gwaider, has said that the HoR would not leave the country “in a constitutional vacuum”, and that it would make sure that it handed over power to an elected parliament.
He was referring to the view that the remit of the House expires in five months’ time, in October.
There has been growing public concern that if no peace deal emerges from the UN-brokered Dialogue process, Libya could end up in an even more dangerous mess than at present, with no accepted legislature operating in the country.
Alluding to the latest Dialogue draft from Bernardino Leon which gets round the expiry issue by effectively extending the HoR’s life, to another two years at most, in parallel to that of the government of national unity, Ageela Saleh said that he and the House were satisfied with the draft.
For his part, the HoR’s official spokesman, Faraj Buhashim, has said that the House would vote on a constitutional amendment to extend it mandate, adding that in the present circumstances, it would be impossible to hold fresh elections.
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