Components of the Libyan Cyrenaica region, represented by political, civil and social parties and forces, members of the Parliament and members of the Constitution Drafting Assembly have demanded the Parliament Presidency and members, the General Command of the Libyan National Army and all national Forces of declaring federal government in the regions of Cyrenaica and Fezzan according to the unamended 1951 constitution.
The components called, at the conclusion of a conference held Saturday in Benghazi, to “disengage from the Government of National Unity” in Tripoli in order to “create a model for development in stable regions as a step to restore the homeland, its sovereignty and unity, and to ensure the achievement of the aspirations of the Libyan nation for prosperity, growth and development.”
The statement saluted the Parliament members from Cyrenaica for their historical position on their demand to hold an official session of the Parliament to discuss the activation of the unamended independence constitution, calling on the rest of the parliament members to follow suit in this demand.
The statement demanded, “all trends demanding rights in all regions of the country to join this conference, from which a coordinating committee will emerge to communicate with all local, regional and international political parties in order to put this statement into effect.”
The statement expressed these forces’ awareness of “the seriousness of the current situation the country is witnessing in terms of fragmentation, divide, chaos, a decline in the level of services in all fields and sectors, the deterioration of economic and living conditions, high prices, high unemployment and poverty rates, the spread of bribery, nepotism and corruption, and the absence of the law, oversight, transparency and accountability.” .
It stressed that the demand to announce the federal government came due to “the political and constitutional obstruction that the country has suffered for many years due to the successive separatist central governments and their control over the state’s institutions, and the consequent waste and depletion of resources and wealth, the loss of the rights of generations in the present and the future, and the exploitation of people’s needs in Cyrenaica and Fezzan, by imposing harsh measures represented in stopping the clearing and preventing the regions’ share of credits and privileges, limiting diplomatic missions and academic delegations abroad to certain segments of the Libyan nation, and opening the door for foreign interventions in Libyan affairs to target the nascent institutions that were established in the stable regions, which harmed the sovereignty of the state and its territorial integrity, pledging its fate and capabilities by illegally concluding memoranda of understanding and agreements with other countries.
The statement also stressed that the demand for a federal government came as “a belief in the importance of activating the unamended constitution of independence with its federal system and its three historical regions “Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan” to preserve the one unified state of Libya, to achieve sustainable peace, the desired stability and comprehensive national reconciliation, and to consolidate justice, equality, equal opportunities and the judiciary, and eliminating centralization.