Libya bans religious parties from elections

Libya has banned parties based on religion, tribe or ethnicity running in elections later this yeat, the government has said.

National Transitional Council spokesman Mohammed al- Harizy said the council passed the law governing the formation of political parties on Tuesday evening. “Parties are not allowed to be based on religion or ethnicity or tribe,” he said.

He did not make clear how this would affect a political party formed in March by Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. The new party was expected to make a strong showing in the election, the first since last year’s overthrow of Muammar al-Gaddafi.

The head of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Development Party said the NTC needed to make it clearer what it meant by banning religious parties. He said this would cause controversy in Libya, whose population of six million is made up almost entirely of conservative Sunni Muslims.

“This kind of clause is only useful in countries where there exist many religions, not in Libya, where most people are religious Muslims,” Mohammed Sawan said.

“This law needs to be reviewed by the NTC and if it’s not changed, we would have to protest it.”

Libya’s NTC has already indicated that the country will be run in accordance with sharia, though the exact place of Islamic law in the legal system will be settled only once a new constitution is written after elections.

Political analysts have said the Muslim Brotherhood is likely to emerge as Libya’s most organised political force and an influential player in the oil-exporting state where Islamists, like all dissidents, were harshly suppressed during the 42 years of Gaddafi’s dictatorial rule.