Libya drops election quota for women [View all]

[tabatha]

Libya will scrap a proposal for 10 percent of seats in a new national assembly to be set aside for women, a Western diplomat who is engaged in discussions with the Libyan election committee told Reuters on Friday.

The new, 200-member assembly is set to be elected in June to draw up a constitution after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi last year.

Last month, the interim ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) posted a draft election law on its website and asked people to comment on it as part of a plan to engage the population in the democratic process. The draft called for 20 seats to be set aside for women.

“After the draft election law was posted on the NTC website for feedback from the public, 80 per cent of the 14,000 emails received (by the NTC) were against the quota, including women’s rights groups,” the diplomat said.

http://feb17.info/news/libya-drops-election-quota-for-women

That is what I consider democracy in action. And not slow, either. Less than a year after "independence" the first election (as in Tunisia) to draft a constitution.