Libya's General National Congress (GNC) on Sunday (May 5th) overwhelmingly approved a controversial law barring members of the Kadhafi regime from serving in government.
The political isolation law was passed with 164 votes in favour to four against, with congress under pressure from armed militias and protestors, who continue to besiege key government ministries in the capital.
On Monday, militia leaders occupying the foreign ministry told AFP that they were demanding the interim government resign.
"We are determined to continue our movement until the departure of [Prime Minister] Ali Zidan," said Osama Kaabar, a leader of one of the militias that had promised to lift their siege if the law was passed. Kaabar is also vice president of the Supreme Council of Libyan Revolutionaries.
The gunmen had temporarily withdrawn from around the foreign and justice ministries on Sunday.
The new law bars any Kadhafi-era official from serving in government regardless of their role in the revolution. Both Prime Minister Zidan and GNC President Mohamed Magarief once served as diplomats under the Kadhafi regime before defecting.
"This law is far too vague - potentially barring anyone who ever worked for the authorities during the four decades of Kadhafi's rule," Human Rights Watch's Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement on Saturday.
Prior to the congressional vote, demonstrators flooded Martyrs' Square to push for the bill's passage. Some rally participants came from Fashloum carrying coffins, joining scores of other demonstrators from the political isolation co-ordinating committee along with Tripoli residents.
"Sunday is the day on which our dignity is restored," read one leaflet distributed at the rally "Direct voting exposes the former regime's loyalists and enhances the standing of honest people. We will isolate them to cleanse the key posts of the state of corrupters and replace them with people of honour and competency who have been removed for 44 years."
"With the isolation of regime's loyalists, Libya will be without former regime's loyalists or corruption," read another leaflet.
Belqis Ghogha, who works in the investment sector, said the law's passage was a victory for the revolution and for martyrs.
Ahmed al-Tabibi, an Islamist member of the GNC, also praised the law's passage, adding that there were "no exceptions for anyone who worked with Kadhafi".
He noted that a new commission would be created with 12 members who hold degrees in Sharia and law, and that its rulings would be passed by a majority plus one.
Protestors cheered the bill's passage, chanting "the martyrs' blood is not in vain" and "political isolation is our main demand".
GNC spokesman Omar Hamidan said at a press conference held directly after the law's passage that it was an historic moment. He added that immunity would be withdrawn from GNC members so the law could be applied against them and that the law would enter into force in a month.
"This law is not aimed at exclusion or incrimination," Hamidan said. "Not all those who were excluded under this law are criminals; rather there are many patriots who were excluded and removed under the law."
He said that the legislation did not discredit honest patriots, but would draw a separating line between the former regime's ideas and the ideas Libyans aspire to in order to build the new Libya.
"The law doesn't aim at incrimination at all; rather, it is just taking precautions to create a suitable atmosphere for the building of a modern state," Hamidan said.
© Magharebia.com 2013
