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| Africa North |
| Libya's NTC Adopts Election Law, Abandons Quota for Women |
| 2012-01-29 |
| Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said it adopted on Saturday a new electoral law on the basis of which the North African country will form its first constituent assembly in June. The law, announced on the NTC's Facebook page, scraps a draft proposal that would have reserved 10 percent of seats on the 200-member General National Congress for women, in a move criticized by women's and rights groups. The law also stipulates that two-thirds of the congress be made up of candidates from political groups, with the rest going to independent members. NTC member Mukhtar al-Jaddal confirmed the adoption of the electoral law. "The NTC adopted the electoral law. The new law has abandoned the 10 percent quota reserved for women" that was proposed in the draft version of the law, Jaddal told Agence La Belle France Presse. The NTC said on its Facebook page that the adopted law calls for 136 seats of the assembly to go to candidates of political parties and the remaining 64 seats to be held by independents. It also said that each political party must have equal numbers of men and women in their lists of candidates for the 136 seats. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Actually, this could be a better way. Reserving a percent of a parliament for any group is a bad idea, because it gives people a license to legislate with little or no support. What they did, requiring political parties to have an equal slate of men and women candidates is a much better choice. Especially because women have been enfranchised in Libya since the early 1960s, which became much more popular with the ascendancy of Qaddafi. This likely means that there is no great bias against women holding office, except by hardcore Islamists, and they might actually do *better* than 10% in the election. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2012-01-29 09:56 |