Malta is discussing the way forward with its European counterparts after the Libyan Supreme Court ruled that the country’s internationally recognised Parliament is illegal.
Yesterday the Libyan Supreme Court invalidated the election of the Libyan House of Representatives, which is based in the east.
“The EU will take a decision about this ruling by Monday and Malta is participating in the discussion about the impact of the court’s decision,” Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella said.
Libya is in turmoil as its two rival governments and parliaments struggle for control, three years after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
We are sinking back into dictatorship
The western part is controlled by Operation Dawn, which seized Tripoli in August, while the internationally recognised Parliament and government fled to the eastern city of Tobruk.
For Yousef Lamlum, the court’s ruling is good news.
“Libyans want true democracy. Although the people in government have changed since the overthrow of Gaddafi, the politics remained the same. We are sinking back into dictatorship,” said Mr Lamlum, who is from the western city of Misurata.
“What has the government done in the past three years? Although it had the support of foreign governments, these did not have any interest in democracy for the Libyan people,” he said.
Mr Lamlum said Libya was divided in two factions – the one in Tobruk is following in Gaddafi’s steps and the other in Misurata, Zawiya, Gharyan and the surrounding areas, is calling for a modernisation of Libya.
The faction recognised internationally had unfairly tarnished the other side with claims of extremism, but the real terrorism was depriving Libyan people of their basic right for a democracy, he said.
“We want to see education flourish in Libya. We want to see our economy grow.
“If our rights were being observed we wouldn’t be fighting for our voice to be heard. We now hope that the international community recognises the court’s decision.”
Contacted for his initial reaction to the ruling, anthropologist Ranier Fsadni said in the immediate term, the court decision was likely to affect the international community more than Libyans themselves.
“The result of the June elections, which the court has annulled, only had an 18 per cent participation rate, which indicates the degree of disillusionment that had already set in among the electorate.
“The government backed by the House of Representatives in Tobruk does not control any of Libya’s three major cities. So the fact that the House of Representatives has been effectively dissolved should not have an immediate practical impact on ordinary Libyans. For them, it was a half imaginary government to begin with,” he explained.
For the international community, however, the Tobruk faction was the only legal reality and now the effective dissolution of the assembly by the highest court in the land obliged the international community to make a difficult choice.
“How can it insist on the rule of law if it itself ignores the Libyan Supreme Court? If it accepts the court’s ruling, however, will it recognise the Tripoli-based government or no government at all? The answer is not simple. In both instances, the consequences will undermine the building of stable State institutions.”
The international community might try to find a practical way forward by continuing to insist on internationally mediated talks between the two sides.
In this way, he said, a formula might be found to offer some kind of recognition to both. However it would depend on both sides accepting to participate in such talks.