Libya MPs boycott Benghazi parliament session

Sixty-three members of Libya’s House of Representatives have announced a boycott of the session called by the parliamentary leadership for September 14th, as reported by Al-Marsad and agencies on September 14th.

In a statement issued in Benghazi on September 13th, the members cited the absence of a clear agenda and the leadership’s failure to honour an earlier decision giving priority to amending the chamber’s internal rules of procedure, they added that the call for the session disregarded demands raised during recent consultative meetings.

The signatories said they would not attend any session unless procedures and regulations were properly observed, including consideration of proposals that had already gathered sufficient member signatures.

The statement is not, however, a rejection of the electoral agreement signed at the United Nations Support Mission in Tripoli on August 30th, the members noted that the outcomes of the 4+4 committee had been welcomed by 111 lawmakers, a figure that includes the signatories themselves alongside other members of the House.

The members rejected the inclusion of any agenda item ahead of the reform and amendment of the internal rules, and insisted that a vote on the 4+4 outcomes should follow immediately once those rules have been revised, amending the rules, the statement said, is the priority necessary to organise the chamber’s work and return it to a proper footing.

The signatories also expressed surprise and deep regret that the House had not convened a single session in response to recent events in the country and blamed the parliamentary leadership for this disruption, they restated their refusal to attend any sitting that ignores the chamber’s own demands and decisions.

Under the terms signed on August 30th, the House of Representatives and the High Council of State have one month to approve the agreement, a window that closes at the end of September after which the signatories have undertaken to pursue adoption through broader national mechanisms and to seek backing from the UN Security Council.

Al-Marsad plus agencies, maghrebi.org