This week, the Congress postponed two important votes on the grounds that not enough members were present to reach the 120-vote minimum required to pass key laws.
The first vote was to make amendments to the recently passed law for electing the constitution writing committee, known as the Sixty Committee because of its 60 members. The proposed amendments are related to the number of seats on the committee that have been reserved for Libya's ethnic minorities.
Following the uproar from Amazigh, Tebu and Tuareg groups at the limited number of seats that were initially allocated to them in the committee, there has been a push to amend the law to increase their representation. But, due to the insufficient number of members present in the Congress, the vote that was due to go ahead this week had to be postponed until next week.
The vote to select Congress' next deputy leader, due to take place on 29 September, was also put off until next week. The three shortlisted candidates who will replace Giumah Attigha, believed to have resigned to pre-empt being barred by the political isolation law, are Omar Khalid Al-Obeidi from Benghazi, Izzideen Mohamed Younis Yahia Al-Awami from Al-Marj and Awad Mohamed Awad Abdul Sadiq from Jalu. All three are independents and, notably, all three come from the east. This is presumably to balance the fact that Congress head Nouri Abu Sahmaine is from the west.
For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.
© 2013 Menas Associates
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