[Debate] On Libya, UN's Martin Admits Disenfranchised Fight in Kufra, Militias as Challenge

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://innercitypress.com/libya1elections070912.html>
On Libya, UN's Martin Admits Disenfranchised Fight in Kufra, Militias
as Challenge

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 9 -- Amid a love fest for Libya's elections there
are some discordant notes. A helicopter with election material was
shot down over Benghazi, where four polling stations were shut.

Observers never made it to parts of the south, due to security
concerns. And the key next step on the constitution was removed, to
some degree, from the election, with seats set aside by region.

Inner City Press on Monday asked UN envoy Ian Martin about this
topics, specifically of groups disproportionately disenfranchised, how
far "federalism" will go and the continuing presence of armed militias
now long after the extra judicial execution of Gaddafi.

Martin acknowledged that a disenfranchisement dispute led many in
Kufra, for example, not to proceed to polling there.

On federalism, he argued that since Libya had such a constitution from
1951 to 1963, it is not surprising that it is desired again. He called
the question of militias a "somewhat different question." But isn't
the goal of some of the still armed groups to assert independence from
the government in Tripoli?

Martin called this the "biggest single challenge" going forward. And
what is the plan to deal with it? Watch this site.

-- 
Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://mrzine.org/>