Libya enjoys political flowering ahead of elections
GHARYAN, Libya |
(Reuters) - As explosions reverberated from the hills near Gharyan, a group met in a college auditorium to hear how one party wants to ensure democracy takes root in Libya."A nation without democracy means nothing," Sedeg Karim, leader of the fledgling Democratic National Party (DNP), told the men, mostly middle-aged professionals.
While Libya's interim rulers struggle to maintain control after a nine-month civil war culminated in the capture and killing of Muammar Gaddafi, the country is experiencing something of a political awakening.
Dozens of new parties have sprung up after a four-decade ban, offering a vibrant mix of democratic, Islamist, free market and nationalist agendas and providing an alternative to established political movements like the Muslim Brotherhood.
A mildly Islamist strain run through almost all. Party statements usually have several references to Islam as the state's official religion and the source of its political and social values. And without clear ideologies or well-known figures to distinguish them, they are likely to eventually merge or form coalitions ahead of assembly election scheduled in June.
But in the meantime the new parties are clarifying their purposes and goals for the assembly, which will write a new constitution, and appealing to regional, tribal and even ethnic allegiances for support.
Karim, a physician who founded the DNP in October, told his listeners at Gharyan's Science College in mid-January he did not want a purely secularist state.
"If someone wants to grow a beard, can you say no to him? Leave him alone! Or a woman wants to wear a headscarf or cover her face, do you tell her don't?" he asked.
"If they believe that this brings them closer to God, then let them be!"
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