In July 2017, the Constitution Drafting Assembly voted by a two-thirds majority in favour of a final draft constitution. The draft constitution defines a presidential system of government, with strong powers given to the president.
Presidential dominance
Article 100 provides for direct popular election of the president. Article 104 gives the president full power to choose a government. Article 113 gives the president to choose the prime minister arbitrarily without being constrained to members of parliament or to the political party with a parliamentary majority. Under Article 115, parliament requires a two-thirds majority to withdraw confidence from the government. Under Article 104, government policy is decided by the president, and implemented by the government. Zaid al-Ali interpreted Articles 67 and 109 to together "assume that it is parliament's responsibility to fall into line with the president".
Wealth redistribution
Zaid al-Ali interpreted Chapters 8 and 9 of the draft constitution to lead to concentration of wealth in the hands of the president, including the control of natural resources.
Security services
Zaid al-Ali judged the lack of definition of intelligence services or constraints on their activities in the draft constitution risked the creation of multiple intelligence agencies with no civilian oversight. He judged the definitions of military and police hierarchies to have "serious problems with the chain of command".
States of emergency
Al-Ali viewed the 120-day limit on a state of emergency defined in the draft constitution as positive, "in keeping with trend" of other post-2011 Arab constitutions. He expressed concern that parliament's approval is not required before a presidential declaration of a state of emergency comes into effect.
Judiciary
Al-Ali judged the judiciary to be defined with a fair degree of independence from the president, but with a flaw in ambiguity regarding the membership and decision-making methods of the high judicial council.
Human rights
Al-Ali viewed the human rights elements of the draft constitution to lack details of how they would be enforced in courts in practice. He commended the "limitations clause" in Article 65, which limits state authorities from restricting any of the human rights declared in the constitution unless the restriction is "necessary, clear, limited, and proportional with the restrictions' objectives". According to al-Ali, only two other Arab countries at the time had this limitation.
Elections
Article 157 of the draft constitution states that the HNEC is responsible for organising elections.
Support and opposition
The Constitution Drafting Assembly presented the draft to the House of Representatives for endorsement. In February 2018, the HoR rejected the CDA's draft constitution and called instead to develop an amendment of the 1951 Constitution of the Kingdom of Libya. Earlier in February 2018, a legal case against the validity of the draft constitution proceeded to a hearing by the Supreme Court, which dismissed lower courts' decisions against the draft.
