Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy said multiparty democracy is a sham promoted by governments that treat their people “like donkeys” and deny them real power, the official Libyan news agency Jana reported on Monday. Qaddafi added in a speech last week that his north African country would never abandon its “state of the masses” system of rule by town hall meetings, which he has long predicted will be eventually embraced by governments around the world, Jana said. “They talk about the alternation of power (from one party to another), Jana quoted Qadaffy, Libya’s ruler for 37 years, as saying. “What does that mean? It means that people are being ridden like donkeys. The world is fed up with parties and elections. Even the Western intelligentsia feels disgusted with the party system and the farce of elections. They acknowledge the fact that what is going on is not democracy but falsification. The world is going to eventually embrace the peoples’ authority, sweeping away all those old systems.”
Qaddafi seized power in a coup in 1969 and in 1977 he proclaimed Jamahiriyah popular rule to try to create the perfect society in line with the teachings of his Green Book, which combines aspects of socialism, Islam and pan-Arabism.