LIBYA – ELECTIONS IN A HEAT WAVE II – WHO WILL WIN AND DOES IT MATTER?

Preliminary results for the Libyan elections for the new House of Representatives which will sit in the Tebesti Hotel in Benghazi have just now been announced. My own superficial and inexpert assessment of the result favours Mahmoud Jibril’s largely secular National Force Alliance rather than the Libyan Moslem Brotherhood’s Islamist leaning Justice and Construction party. However the majority of candidates were required to stand as independents and whilst the list has been published it is very hard to say accurately which of the rival parties the winners will support in practice. The Islamists are saying that they have the support of the majority of independents.
A number of observers also appear to be cautiously forecasting a victory for the secular candidates over the Islamists. We will see, but it may take time for the horse trading to end and the political composition of the new Libyan House of Representatives become clear. Perhaps the recent escalation of violent attacks by Islamist militias is a sign that think they have failed to gain enough seats to control the House and wish to make military gains before it meets. Ansar Sharia has just mounted an all out attack on the forces of Major General Hafter in Benghazi and the Islamist Misratan militias have renewed their attack on the Zintanis at Tripoli’s International Airport. I suspect that the Libyan Islamists will not readily accept the will of the people as expressed in the ballot held on the 25th June, unless they win.
In his paper, The Role of Tribal Dynamics in the Libyan Future, Arturo Varvelli of Italian Institute for International Political Studies, proposes an impossible and near unique trilemma which the people of Libya must somehow accommodate in order to function as a nation. As I understand it, he argues that the coexistence of Islam, democracy and a rentier state has never been successful.
It is, he seems to argue, just possible to implement some democratic principles in an Islamic state. I too argue that in practice the separation of Islam from popular democracy is not easy to achieve. Both the holy Koran and the authenticated saying of the Prophet Mohamed contained in the Sunna are silent on the matter of representational ‘western’ democracy.
Some Muslims argue that the democratic process has its roots in ‘Shura’ or consultation. In effect this suggests that Shura is usleful but only when there is no guiding text in the Koran or the Sunna. The growing Salafist movement, however, rejects all such debate, arguing that what is not accounted for in the core texts is un-Islamic and thus outlawed.
Arturo Varvelli argues that the rentier state, one which derives most of its income from oil and gas, does not encourage democracy. He and others suggest that rentier states do not need to tax their people who consequently have no incentive to exert pressure on government to respond to their needs. We might upend the inspirational catch phrase of the American War of Independence – no taxation without representation – and suggest that democracy withers without taxation.
Varvelli offers the examples of the Gulf States such a Qatar, The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to show that a rentier state which is at the same time an Islamic state cannot also be a truly democratic state. The common factor that these states share is the presence, so far at least, of an hereditary ruling family; the House of Al Thani in Qatar, the eponymous Ibn Saud and in the UAR, Al Nahyan and Al Makhtoum amongst others. Gaddafi’s efforts to establish himself and his family in a similar role in Libya failed spectacularly in 2011, probably because of his serious character flaws, the low esteem in which his tribe is held and his suppression the Libya Islamists.
It would seem then that the brave attempt to elect a House of Representatives may not be the final solution to the Libyan trilemma.
These well researched pieces in Al Jazeera English may prove interesting reading for those who seek a more detailed analysis.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2014/06/infographic-explaining-libyas-election-2014624134840313976.html
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/7/libya-council-ofdeputieselectionsislamistssecuritybenghazi.html
and this excellent piece from the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28418925
John Oakes
22nd July 2014