Interview: Deputy Chairman of the Elections Committee Speaks about Libyan Electoral Law and the Crit
After toppling Gaddafi the next phase of the revolution has started and it is twice as tough as the first one. It consists of few but very important steps which include but not limit to the creation of an interim government and the elections committee which will draft the first electoral law. This electoral law is the same law which will take Libya into the complete new era, an era of Freedom, Education, Unity, Independence and Justice. To draft this law, the NTC made a committee of 8 members which was tasked with the drafting of the electoral law and the establishment of constituencies.
Mr. Ameen Belhadj, who was in the Libyan opposition for well over 30 years, is a central figure in that committee. Umar Khan, Asst. Managing Editor, of The Tripoli Post interviewed him recently. What follows is the opinion of Mr. Ameen Belhadj on the draft election law, the feedback and the criticism they received, inside information on the drafting process of the first electoral law and a little about his personal life.
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Mr. Ameen: You know I’m from the Muslim Brotherhood and I believe in parties’ system. I’m with the list proposal but leave it there as now I am talking about the situation of Libya. I had the opportunity to discuss this with many people on national TV or in seminars and in round table talks. I am very happy with the feedback we received. We received 14000 emails and more than 200 documents where many people revised the whole draft law. We appreciate it and are very happy as this is the reason we released the draft. The only thing that makes me sad is that some people who criticize it and don’t know a thing about it. They say elections based on individual candidates are hell while the “lists” system is heaven. It’s not like that. The truth is that both systems are being used in the whole world. U.K is using the individual candidates based system. You select an individual when you go to vote and not the party. That name related to any party doesn’t matter. It is also used in U.S and also in many underdeveloped countries. Then there are “lists” elections where each party presents a list of the candidates, and the voter will choose the list, e.g. green list which is for XY party or a TREE which is for WZ. Nobody can convince the other that one is hell and the other is heaven or vice versa. I wish somebody had stepped forward to discuss both the advantages and disadvantages of both the systems and that this specific system will go with Libya because of XY reasons. This would have been a good discussion but this never happened, whenever I get into discussion with anybody I realize that they are unaware of the hidden technicalities of it. I will tell you for example, we in MB want 10 candidates for Tripoli. Overall there are 6 parties which all will submit a list for 10 candidates for TRIPOLI.
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