Here is an excellent article by Sami Zaptia about the crucial legal, structural, and populist issues preventing the GNC from moving forward on selecting or electing the Constitutional Committee. This is a must read for all interested in Libya's thorniest political issues.
Initially, the TCD in August 2011 stipulated that the 60 are chosen by the GNC. However, on the last day of its tenure in 2012, the National Transitional Council (NTC), headed by Mustafa Abdul Jalil, amended the TCD so that the 60 must be elected by the general public.It is believed that the NTC was forced to make this amendment in order to calm demands by Federalists in eastern Libya and in the face of a threat of a boycott of the 2012 GNC elections in the east.For months after the elections, the GNC, feeling that it has the ultimate legitimacy and sovereignty, attempted to avoid the more troublesome process of election, preferring the easier selection route. However, under much political pressure, demonstrations and even armed attacks on its building, it caved in and announced that the 60 will be elected.Only weeks later after reaching that decision, the whole subject was turned on its head again as the Constitutional Court revoked the NTC amendment, declaring it unconstitutional, meaning that the GNC could, after all, select the 60.On Tuesday the GNC was yet again unable to find consensus and reach a decision they could sell to the general public. Its members are still torn between sticking to their first instinct to select the 60 or giving-in to populist demands to elect the 60. Ultimately, they have decided to yet again postpone a vote on the issue to at least next week. A constitutional amendment to adjust the means of selecting the 60 needs a two-thirds majority. GNC members feel that they are unable to achieve such a high threshold. They are therefore considering whether to remove the two-thirds threshold requirement for the amendment, as a way to break the impasse.