UPDATE-Libya’s Pro-NATO Coalition Cut Out of Cabinet

Abushagur, the elected prime minister said he wants to build a coalition government with a "geographical balance".

Πηγή: ANTIWAR

By Jason Ditz
Oct 3 2012

Libya’s pro-NATO National Forces Alliance (NFA) won the largest plurality of any faction in the parliamentary election, 39 seats out of the 80 possible for party candidates. The win was trumpeted as a big move toward a secular, pro-West regime at the time.

In the end though, the NFA has found itself cut entirely out of the incoming cabinet, even though they are nominally part of the “grand coalition government.” They are reporting they were not given a single cabinet post out of more than 20 portfolios up for grabs.

The NFA was led by former Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, and had demanded at least nine of the cabinet positions before learning they weren’t given a single one. It is unclear who the new ministers are yet, but the current prime minister says they were picked for a “geographical balance.”

The NFA’s lack of post-election influence reflects the unusual system of elections in Libya, where only 80 seats are even potentially available for members of political parties and the other 120 are set aside for independent candidates. Though the NFA has more seats than any other parties, the independents are seen as more friendly by and large toward the religious blocs.

UPDATE: Libya's prime minister-elect said on Thursday he had withdrawn his proposed government list, just a day after presenting it to the national congress for approval, after protesters stormed the assembly and politicians voiced discontent over his nominations.

Libya: Avoiding The Holocaust

Πηγή: Strategy Page
July 27 2012

The July 7th elections put non-Islamic conservatives into power. But the majority party, the National Forces Alliance (NFA) contains many leaders who were active in the NTC (National Transitional Council) that exercised shaky control over the country since the Kaddafi government lost power a year ago. There are still dozens of major tribes and warlords with armed militias and unwillingness to obey all orders from the NTC or, apparently the newly elected NFA government. The major challenge is to restore rule of law, and government without triggering armed resistance from the independent minded militias.

The NFA and its allies captured nearly half the seats in parliament and will be able to form a coalition government with some smaller reform-minded groups, or maybe not. Inexperience in running a democracy is causing lots of unexpected problems. One of the more ominous ones is accusations by some Islamic conservative parties that they were cheated in the election and righteous violence might be the right response to such mistreatment. That would be a mistake, and most Islamic conservatives know it.

The majority of Libyans are not shy letting anyone know that they do not want Islamic radicals or, as they call them, "Taliban" running the country. Al Qaeda's murderous policies in Iraq, and elsewhere, have turned most Moslems against Islamic terrorism. That sort of thing obviously kills more Moslems than kaffirs (non-Moslems) and is thus unacceptable. But local opposition does not always stop the Islamic terror groups from trying to impose their will anyway, after all, they are on a Mission From God.

Speaking of law, most Libyans indicated they want law based on Sharia (Islamic law) but now Sharia itself. Women want equal (or at least more equal) rights and everyone wants a modern (rather than medieval) version of Sharia.

The newly elected government is encountering resistance from over a hundred armed militias who refuse to hand over 5,000 prisoners. Most of those held are considered Kaddafi loyalists or "war criminals" (for killing civilians during last year's revolution.) The government has been able to prevent mass executions of these militia prisoners, but there is no judicial system to try them, or functioning prisons to hold those convicted. The government has taken control over two dozen jails throughout the country, but has not been able to put all of them back into operation. The NTC itself holds about 4,000 prisoners.

There are still towns and villages in the interior that are dominated by pro-Kaddafi militias. The government has been too busy trying to keep the peace on the coast (where most Libyans, and independent minded militias, live). But eventually, the thousands of armed Kaddafi diehards will have to be dealt with.

July 16, 2012: In the southwestern town of Ghadames (on the Algerian border) tribal raiders attacked and killed seven people and wounded over twenty. The raiders were from one of several black African tribes that fled the cities after Kaddafi was defeated. Black Libyans were seen as Kaddafi loyalists (although most were not) and generally persecuted by the rebel militias.

July 15, 2012: Attempts to crack down on corruption have caused more problems. For example, over 200 Libyans staged a violent demonstration outside the Libyan embassy in Jordan. The demonstrators want the Libyan government to provide them with lots of money for medical, travel and living expenses. The Libyan government had halted these payments because most of the expense claims were false. All this was because a program last year, to provide medical treatment abroad for wounded rebels.

The program was soon corrupted (not unusual in Libya). Local militia and tribal authorities were allowed to decide who was eligible to go abroad for treatment, and the NTC provided cash for that purpose. But soon anyone with the right connections, or a large enough bribe, got a trip to a European or Moslem country for "medical treatment." Many of those going abroad on this program were not ill, but they got to take family members as well and expected the NTC to pay them a stipend (several hundred dollars a month) while they were abroad. But many of these travelers were actually migrating, and the NTC cut off the stipends and cracked down on who was going. The NTC had to do this, because the "medical treatment abroad" program was draining huge amounts of cash from what little the NTC had, and making most Libyans (who were not in on the boondoggle) angry.

July 13, 2012: In Jordan, 150 Libyans who had just completed police training, rioted when told that the Libyan airline that was to fly them home had delayed their flight. The riots led to buildings being burned down and the use of Jordanian riot police to end the violence.

INTERVIEW-Libya Islamist chief won't concede election defeat

Πηγή: Reuters
By Hadeel Al Shalchi
July 11 2012

The head of Libya's largest Islamist party refused on Wednesday to concede defeat in its first free election in almost half a century, accusing his main liberal rival of "tricking" voters with disingenuous commitments to Islam.

In an interview with Reuters, Mohammed Sawan, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, branded wartime prime minister Mahmoud Jibril as a former ally of ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi and said that Jibril's party could lose its lead once fuller results from Saturday's vote trickle in.

While the Brotherhood ran a slick campaign for Saturday's vote, like other Libyan parties it is new to democracy.

On a desk in an office in the party's headquarters sat a stack of English-language how-to books. The titles: Winning Elections, Campaigning Bootcamp 2.0 and the Campaign Manager. All looked new and barely opened.

"Jibril did not present himself to the Libyan people as a liberal. He presented himself as having an Islamic reference," Sawan said. "Secular currents benefited from the Arab Spring revolutions and raised the banner of Islamic reference... Libyans voted for Jibril as he was considered an Islamist too."

Jibril's National Forces Alliance (NFA) has extended an early lead in the landmark elections, according to incomplete tallies, benefiting from his prominence as one of the main figures in last year's uprising to end Gaddafi's 42-year rule.

But the Western-educated Jibril's early gains do not automatically translate into a majority in the 200-seat assembly as candidates on party lists are only allocated 80 spots.

Sawan said the Brotherhood's Justice and Construction Party (JCP) expected to come into its own once results for independent seats, which rely on connections and social standing, came in.

The main parties, including the JCP, have loyalists running on independent tickets but who will ultimately vote in a bloc with them once in the national assembly.

"Maybe the final result will show that Justice and Construction is the leading party," he said.

But despite such optimism, Sawan wore a look of disappointment. His party had widely been expected to perform strongly, boosted by the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and moderate Islamist Ennahda in the first post-revolutionary elections in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia respectively.

The Brotherhood's campaign team was comprised of Libyans who were educated abroad and its huge banners bore the recognisable symbol of a golden stallion. Brotherhood candidates also drafted in their daughters to help with public relations.

Educated in Canada and the United States, they arranged interviews for media in perfect North American-accented English.

Sawan resigned as the head of the Brotherhood and was elected to head the nominally independent JCP ahead of the vote.

NO GRAND COALITION

Despite those efforts, the Brotherhood has struggled to convince Libyans wary of foreign interference that it has no financial or administrative links to its namesake in Egypt.

Another obstacle the Brotherhood has faced is that its leader and its candidates are not well known among Libyans.

Having been thoroughly crushed by Gaddafi, they did not benefit from the vast charitable networks that served their Egyptian counterparts so well at the ballot box.

At the same time, hundreds of mainly Islamist political prisoners, including Sawan himself, were freed from jail in the early 2000s as part of reforms led by Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam. The notion that the Brotherhood was willing to cut deals with the old regime to get out of jail damaged their image.

"Libyans don't know the reality of the Islamists and Muslim Brotherhood or the JCP because there is a phobia surrounding them. But the evidence that the Islamists have succeeded will show in the independent votes and everyone will discover that the 120 that won (as) independents are Islamists," he said.

Positioning himself as a potential unifying figure, Jibril earlier this week called on parties to join a grand alliance.

But Sawan showed little appetite for that. Bitterly branding Jibril, who served as a minister under Gaddafi, as the choice of old Gaddafi loyalists, Sawan said his party would clash with Jibril's on the role of religion in politics.

"To them Islamic reference means to establish Islamic rituals, that some personal status laws are sharia-based, but the other areas have nothing to do with Islam... Our view is that Islam is a complete way of life," he said.