On the accusation of dividing Libya and spreading sedition ... The Tobruk Parliament refers 35 deputies to the Public Prosecution Office

The head of the Libyan House of Representatives, held in Tobruk, Aqila Saleh, transferred to the Public Prosecutor's Office a decision to revoke the membership of 35 deputies and investigate them, accusing them of assaulting constitutional institutions, calling for the division of the country, spreading discord and chaos, and sowing division.

The Presidency of the Council of Representatives said in a statement that the decision came because of the dissent of the representatives from the Sharia Council and their formation of a parallel Parliament in Tripoli, and in violation of the Constitutional Declaration and the Council's internal system, according to the text of the statement.

For his part, the spokesman for the Libyan House of Representatives meeting in Tripoli, Asaad Al-Shirta, downplayed the importance of dropping the membership of the concerned representatives and referring them to the Attorney General for investigation.

Al-Shartaa said that the decision to drop the membership of every deputy needs a majority vote in accordance with the internal regulations governing the work of Parliament, which was not available in the decision to drop membership issued by Aqila Saleh.

Sharp clash

Earlier, the founding body of the draft constitution entered into a sharp clash with the United Nations mission in Libya after the latter announced the formation of a legal committee to agree on the constitutional arrangements leading to the elections, while on the other hand, disputes escalated between members of the Libyan Parliament over the new presidency.

The UN mission in Libya has formed a legal committee of 18 members from among the members of the political dialogue with the aim of following up the constitutional committee formed by the House of Representatives meeting in Tobruk and the State Council in Tripoli, and to make recommendations on the constitutional path.

Cairo, under UN sponsorship, previously hosted the first round of the constitutional track meeting in Libya with the participation of the delegations of representatives and the state, where the attendees agreed on the need to end the transitional phase, and they discussed the possibility of a referendum on the current draft constitution or not.

The UN mission at the Egypt meeting urged the Libyan parties to come out with a legal agreement that would guarantee consensual constitutional arrangements that would allow the implementation of the comprehensive political agreement.

The Constitutional Assembly elected in February 2014 completed the Libyan constitution draft on July 29, 2017 in the eastern city of Al-Bayda, but the parliament did not succeed in ratifying the draft constitution to present it to the people for a referendum.

On the other hand, the meeting of the members of the House of Representatives stalled after members loyal to Aqila Saleh refused to change the presidency of the parliament before choosing a president for the Presidential Council, the candidate for whom Aqila Saleh was accused, whom his opponents accuse of obstructing the presentation of the draft constitution for ratification within the House of Representatives, and enabling the people to refer to it.