Opinion: No Exclusions Please!!! - by Gada Mahfud.

From the beginning of the Libyan uprising last year, our intentions were clear: our main goal was democracy. We wanted free and fair elections, and right from the start the citizens within Libya had the full support of the Libyan Diaspora, be it moral, through the social media channels, or financial, by collecting funds to buy cars, ambulances, medical supplies and communications equipment for the revolutionaries.

The Libyan community all over the world polarised the world opinion by exposing Gaddafi to the world media and encouraged their respective governments to play a role in alleviating the horrendous oppression Libyans were suffering under him.

Many of the revolutionaries abandoned their successful careers and prosperous businesses to join in the fight to free a homeland they had never set foot in, but were prepared to die for, to set it free.

So it was quite shocking that after Libya was liberated and the National Transitional Council, NTC, came to make its first draft of the electoral law, it shunned the Libyan emigrants by saying that those with dual nationality could not participate in the elections until they give up their other nationality.

After some persistent campaigning the NTC realised that such a statement outraged the people, and and later rightfully retracted it saying that it was going to leave the decision for an elected body to deliberate.

Another mark of disrespect shown to the Libyans abroad was the recent announcement by Nuri Elabbar, the head of the High National Election Commission, HNEC. On his first day on the job he said that Libyans abroad most likely won't be able to vote due to the shortage of time in which to register and collect their vote.

This blow to expats was unexpected, since at short notice, many Libyan embassies, anticipating that such information would be demanded from them, had already sent out registration forms to collect information required for voter registration. But the NTC officials seem to find it easier for them to to exclude groups instead of making everyone work harder to accomplish tasks.

With such a tiny population I find it comical that the NTC has tried to exclude large groups such as the diaspora which is a relatively large group, reportedly over half a million, and recently the Libyan armed forces.

The main function of the transitional authorities is to direct the country towards fair, safe elections. Yet all we hear about are groups that the NTC wants to exclude.

For instance, according to NTC's latest elections legislation the armed forces are to be excluded from voting according, which is a huge mistake and a gross injustice. To deny brave souls the very right they fought for and in some cases still losing their lives in order to protect us by securing our borders, keeping the peace and overseeing the smoothness of the electoral process, is immoral..

The USA and many other countries pay special attention to their armed forces and go to great lengths to facilitate their democratic rights in elections, whether on home soil or deployed, and I think our armed forces deserve to have the same courtesy extended to them.

So I urge Libyans to campaign hard to demonstrate to the NTC that we are unsatisfied with these exclusions. We need to stress to them that all Libyans should be allowed to vote regardless of their geographical location or job description.

Libyans have earned the right to be free, to express themselves freely, and to elect whom they see fit to govern and serve them, and nobody, not the NTC or somebody else can take this right from them. I know that government officials in or out of uniform are barred from participating in general elections as candidates for various offices, and this practice is almost universal, but denying armed forces personnel the right to vote is something incomprehensible, to say the least, and must be withdrawn.

Earlier, the NTC's first draft of the electoral law proposed not permitting Libyan Emigrants holding dual nationality to participate in voting, but luckily, this prohibition got deleted under public pressure. One has got to give the NTC some allowance for the fact that they are trying to accomplish a lot in a short period of time and in a situation where things are not quite clear, but still, one would expect the people holding such important positions to be clear in their thinking. They also have to keep in mind that as the name NTC implies, their role is transitional: mainly to make arrangments for a free and fair election, and leave long-term decision-making to the elected representatives.

On occasions shortage of time creates added problems, and this is the reason given by the head of the High National Election Commision who on his very first day on the job is reported to have said that Libyans abroad most likely won't be able to vote due to the shortage of time in which to register and collect their vote It would appear that he has just been appointed and if so, to be fair to him, one must admit that there really is not much time between now and the 22nd of June. At the same time, in this age of advanced technology, catering to half a million voters does not seem a lot, especially in a sitution where Libyan embassies have done some ground work already. Still, one has got to remember that these half-a-million voters are scattered all over the globe which makes the process far more complicated, increasing enormously the chances of someting going wrong in some places, creating doubts about the whole election process. And the worst thing that could happen would be some sort of controversy about the conduct of election and its result. There are bound to be some losers in the elections and it is not always that people accept their defeat gracefully. Just consider the complications that could arise if due to malfunctioning of some aspects of the election process, some candidates refuse to accept the results, and decide to agitate along with their supporters, all armed. It is absolutely essential to conduct the elections in a transparent manner and I am sure there would be independent observers to check the conduct of elections at various polling stations within Libya, but this sort of check would be difficult to design and apply to voting by Libyan emigrants, in the short space of time available, unless of course the bulk of the work in this respect has been done already.

In the present circumstances, I think the best thing to do would be to take stock of how much preparatory work has been done in connection with the registration of the Libyans abroad and how much remains to be done, and based on that, try to make an independent, cool, and non-emotional assessment whether it would be possible to complete the remaining work between now and the election date which is just over a month away. If the result is positive, excellent: just keep up and speed up the good work. However, in case the result is negative, the situation should be explained in detail to the Emigrant Libyans by some prominent NTC official and an apology offered to them. Having lived away from my country for over two decades, I know very well how expatriates feel about their country. No doubt it would come to them as a great disappointment but in the larger interest of their country and the nation, they will accept it.

- Karachi / Pakistan

2012 - The Tripoli Post

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