http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article565904.ece Libya drops election quota for women By REUTERS
Published: Jan 20, 2012 18:54 Updated: Jan 20, 2012 23:16 TRIPOLI: Libya will scrap a proposal for 10 percent of seats in a new national assembly to be set aside for women, a Western diplomat who is engaged in discussions with the Libyan election committee told Reuters on Friday. The new, 200-member assembly is set to be elected in June to draw up a constitution after the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi last year. Last month, the interim ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) posted a draft election law on its website and asked people to comment on it as part of a plan to engage the population in the democratic process. The draft called for 20 seats to be set aside for women. “After the draft election law was posted on the NTC website for feedback from the public, 80 percent of the 14,000 e-mails received (by the NTC) were against the quota, including women’s rights groups,” the diplomat said. Some Libyan women’s rights groups still support the quota, and say it should be made higher - perhaps more than 50 percent to reflect a majority female population in the country. Among other changes from the original draft, members of parliament will be elected from separate constituencies, rather than competing countrywide. The United Nations had urged Libya to hold elections in constituencies, which ensures all regions are represented and makes it easier to limit fraud than in a countrywide tally where problematic results in one area can taint the entire outcome. A rule barring holders of multiple nationalities from voting will also be scrapped, and the new rules relax a ban on members of the NTC running for seats. The ban was put in place to emphasize a change in power from the internationally recognized but self-appointed NTC to the new elected body. “Political figures and NTC members are still forbidden from running in the elections to teach people about the transfer of power, but the NTC thought that banning members of the local NTC councils would be unnecessary,” the diplomat said. “Local NTC council members will be allowed to run.” Libyans with ties to Qaddafi will still be banned from running in elections, as will academics who wrote about Qaddafi’s “Green Book,” containing his musings on politics, economics and everyday life. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: prole...@egroups.com Subscribe : proletar-subscr...@egroups.com Unsubscribe : proletar-unsubscr...@egroups.com List owner : proletar-ow...@egroups.com Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: proletar-dig...@yahoogroups.com proletar-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: proletar-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
