The General National Congress voted by a large majority on
Sunday for the removal of anyone who held a senior position during the
Gaddafi regime, a change that could potential remove the current Prime
Minister and other officials regardless of their active role in the
opposition.
The ‘Political Isolation’ law has been in discussion for months, but due to mounting pressure from armed groups who besieged governmental buildings the GNC were forced to make a decision sooner rather than later.
“Being unjust to a few is better than defeating the whole objective of the law,” said one of the hundreds who filled Tripoli’s main square to celebrating the passage of the law, many of them shooting guns into the air.
The cabinet and Libya’s official armed forces are so weak that swathes of the oil-producing desert country remain outside central government control.
A spokesman for parliament admitted it was unclear whether the vote would be enough to dislodge the gunmen from their positions outside the government buildings.
“We hope the siege of the ministries will stop now, but it is not in our hands,” General National Congress (GNC) spokesman Omar Hmaiden told a news conference after the vote.
More than a dozen vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft weapons and machine guns remained parked outside the Justice Ministry and the Foreign Ministry has been similarly encircled for a week.
One of the men stationed by a machine gun in front of the Justice Ministry, said the group came from different areas close to the capital Tripoli and ahead of the vote vowed they would stay until the prime minister had been forced from office.
“We have been asking them to deal with Gaddafi’s friends for a year,” he said.
Although the law passed with an overwhelming majority of 164 votes in favor and just four against, many congress members were upset.
“It’s a very unfair and extreme law, but we need to put national interests first in order to solve the crisis,” said Tawfiq Breik, spokesman for Mahmoud Jibril’s National Forces Alliance (NFA) bloc, Libya’s largest parliamentary coalition.
Diplomats in Tripoli have complained that the vote undermines any legitimacy the GNC appears to have. Some fear submitting to the armed groups shown by the Libyan government, rather than retaliation, could cause the groups to use force again in the future.
Human Rights Watch called for the GNC to reject the law, claiming the it is too sweeping and vague.
“The GNC should not allow itself to be railroaded into making very bad laws because groups of armed men are demanding it,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, a Human Rights Watch director in the region, in a statement.
“Libya’s long-term prospects for peace and security will be seriously diminished if the congress agrees to nod through this law.”
Much will depend on how high up in Gaddafi’s administration an official has to have been in order to be excluded from politics, one analyst said.
“If the bar is too low, the law could result in most government administrations being gutted, without having sufficient staff or institutional memory to ensure their proper functioning,” said Geoff Porter of North Africa Risk Consulting.
“However, if the bar is too high then we are likely to see repeats of the blockades in front of government ministries that we saw this week.”
The law prohibits former officials from holding any position in government or even belonging to a political party. It will also ban them from leadership roles in the country’s state firms, like the National Oil Corporation, its universities and judicial bodies.
Source - Reuters
The ‘Political Isolation’ law has been in discussion for months, but due to mounting pressure from armed groups who besieged governmental buildings the GNC were forced to make a decision sooner rather than later.
“Being unjust to a few is better than defeating the whole objective of the law,” said one of the hundreds who filled Tripoli’s main square to celebrating the passage of the law, many of them shooting guns into the air.
The cabinet and Libya’s official armed forces are so weak that swathes of the oil-producing desert country remain outside central government control.
A spokesman for parliament admitted it was unclear whether the vote would be enough to dislodge the gunmen from their positions outside the government buildings.
“We hope the siege of the ministries will stop now, but it is not in our hands,” General National Congress (GNC) spokesman Omar Hmaiden told a news conference after the vote.
More than a dozen vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft weapons and machine guns remained parked outside the Justice Ministry and the Foreign Ministry has been similarly encircled for a week.
One of the men stationed by a machine gun in front of the Justice Ministry, said the group came from different areas close to the capital Tripoli and ahead of the vote vowed they would stay until the prime minister had been forced from office.
“We have been asking them to deal with Gaddafi’s friends for a year,” he said.
Although the law passed with an overwhelming majority of 164 votes in favor and just four against, many congress members were upset.
“It’s a very unfair and extreme law, but we need to put national interests first in order to solve the crisis,” said Tawfiq Breik, spokesman for Mahmoud Jibril’s National Forces Alliance (NFA) bloc, Libya’s largest parliamentary coalition.
Diplomats in Tripoli have complained that the vote undermines any legitimacy the GNC appears to have. Some fear submitting to the armed groups shown by the Libyan government, rather than retaliation, could cause the groups to use force again in the future.
Human Rights Watch called for the GNC to reject the law, claiming the it is too sweeping and vague.
“The GNC should not allow itself to be railroaded into making very bad laws because groups of armed men are demanding it,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, a Human Rights Watch director in the region, in a statement.
“Libya’s long-term prospects for peace and security will be seriously diminished if the congress agrees to nod through this law.”
Much will depend on how high up in Gaddafi’s administration an official has to have been in order to be excluded from politics, one analyst said.
“If the bar is too low, the law could result in most government administrations being gutted, without having sufficient staff or institutional memory to ensure their proper functioning,” said Geoff Porter of North Africa Risk Consulting.
“However, if the bar is too high then we are likely to see repeats of the blockades in front of government ministries that we saw this week.”
The law prohibits former officials from holding any position in government or even belonging to a political party. It will also ban them from leadership roles in the country’s state firms, like the National Oil Corporation, its universities and judicial bodies.
Source - Reuters
هنأ
المجلس الأعلى لثوار ليبيا الشعب الليبي بإقرار قانون العزل السياسي
والإداري.. معتبرا أن إقرار هذا القانون هو صمام أمان ثورة 17 فبراير،
وتحصينها والأساس في دولة ليبيا الجديدة بوجوه ومنهجية جديدة. ووصف المجلس
في بيانه رقم (5) مصادقة المؤتمر الوطني العام على القانون بالانتصار
للتضحيات التي قدمت في مسيرة تحقيق أهداف ثورة فبراير. 
أكد
علي زيدان أن الحكومة المؤقتة ستؤدي دورها بقناعاتها وبما يمليه الواقع،
وما تقتضيه مصلحة الوطن في هذه المرحلة. وقال رئيس الحكومة المؤقته في لقاء
خاص مع عدد من إعلاميي القنوات الفضائية الليبية والذي بث الليلة الماضية
على قنوات ليبيا الحرة والأحرار والعاصمة إن الحكومة تملك القوة، ولكن لن
تستعملها ضد الليبيين إلا إذا كانت مضطرة لذلك، ولابد مواجهة مثل هذه
المسائل بالحكمة. وأعلن زيدان عن نيته تغيير بعض الوزراء، وأن هذا الأمر
يحتاج إلى وقت ، نافياً أن يكون ساهم في توظيف أي شخص محسوباً على النظام
السابق، مؤكدا على أهمية استيعاب الثوار بإعتبارهم ركيزة من الركائز
الأساسية في ليبيا.
أكد
رئيس الوزراء الليبى الدكتور على زيدان أن حصار الوزارات الليبية والتظاهر
المسلح وحمل السلاح فى وجه المجتمع بكامله خسرت ليبيا بسببه الكثير، وأنه
عاد بنا إلى الخلف سنوات عديدة
قطع
عشرات الجرحى من الثوار بمدينة "غريان" الليبية، الطريق الواصل بين مدينتى
طرابلس العاصمة وغريان، احتجاجا على عدم اهتمام الحكومة بتحسين أوضاعهم،
على حد قولهم. وقال "صلاح أبو ساق"، مدير مكتب رعاية شئون الجرحى بمدينة
غريان في تصريحات يوم الأحد، إن المحتجين الذين بلغ عددهم حوالي 250 جريحا،
هدفهم وصول أصواتهم إلى الجهات الحكومية المسئولة عنهم، وإرسالهم للعلاج
فى الخارج ومنحهم المزايا التى تم منحها للثوار والجرحى فى مختلف المدن.
أعرب
مجلس الحكماء ومؤسسات المجتمع المدني بالمجلس المحلي الساحل بالجبل الأخضر
عن رفضهم للاعتصامات التي تعطل المصالح العامة للدولة، والمظاهر المسلحة
التي لا تنضوي تحت مؤسسات الدولة الأمنية أو العسكرية. وأكدوا في البيان
الذي أصدروه في ختام ملتقاهم الطارئ الذي عقدوه بمنطقة قصر ليبيا، أن
التظاهر السلمي المنظم حق مشروع لكل الليبيين. وعبروا عن رفضهم للتظاهرات
ذات الطابع الجهوي أو الإقليمي واعتبروها مهددا للوحدة الوطنية. ورفض بيان
الملتقى تطبيق العزل السياسي على من ساهموا في نجاح ثورة السابع عشر من
فبراير. 
