Benghazi: Report (Al-Anbaa Libyan Newspaper) – The Libyans are approaching the year 2023 with cautious optimism that presidential and parliamentary elections can be held in the first half of the new year, 2024 at the latest, after the electoral process faltered in Libya in December 2021.
What worries the Libyan people is the ambiguity of positions held by some actors in the Libyan political scene, especially the UN envoy to the country, Abdullah Batili, whose statements contradict his latest initiative.
Although the House of Representatives approved the election laws and handed them over to the High Electoral Commission for implementation, the path to elections in Libya, according to political observers, still faces many obstacles, most notably the opposition of the High Council of State to these laws, and the UN mission’s reservations about the allegations of the absence of political consensus around them.
Preface MPs
The House of Representatives paved the way for holding the elections by announcing its
unanimous approval to issue the law on electing the head of state and the law on electing the National Assembly proposed by the ‘6+6’ committee.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ageela Saleh, confirmed that the law did not exclude anyone and that every citizen has the right to run for the presidency ‘whether civilian or military, and whoever does not win will return to his previous work.’ He stressed that the House of Representatives does not have the right to make any amendment to the laws completed by the ‘6 + 6’ Committee.
The House of Representatives decided to refer the draft laws on electing the President of the State and the House of Representatives to the ‘6 + 6’ Electoral Laws Preparation Committee, to reconsider some provisions based on the comments of its members.
Government crisis
The crisis of the new government that is supposed to supervise the elections quickly emerged, as Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba, head of the National Unity Government, strongly opposes it, while the Speaker of the Ho
use of Representatives sees the necessity of this. Ageela Saleh said in previous statements: The country’s leadership must be one, and it must be elected. A boss can command everyone. He stressed that if there had been a president, these divisions would not have occurred, and that there is a good opportunity to unify the military institution.
He stressed that the mission of the mini-unified government is to complete the elections and rehabilitate the affected areas. He called on the members of the House of Representatives to give confidence to the next prime minister on the basis of his program, pointing out that the new government must be chosen carefully, especially its president.
He added: We are in contact with the head of the United Nations mission, Abdullah Batili, and we are almost in agreement that after the issuance of the laws, a unified government must be formed.
The international position
The international positions are contradictory, as the United Nations Support Mission in Libya recently cal
led for agreeing on a clear electoral path and timetable for the elections, and reaching a consensus on the formation of a new unified government that will lead the country towards the elections. It accused the Libyan political parties of delaying in taking action, and warned that this would deepen the division and expose Libya various risks that threaten the lives of people in Libya and undermine regional stability.
These statements contradict the positions of the UN envoy Abdullah Batili, who recently proposed a new initiative, which Libyan officials said was dividing the ranks of the Libyans, as the spokesman for the House of Representatives, Abdullah Belhaq, announced that the Council had decided to refuse to participate in any political dialogue that includes the national unity government headed by Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba.
The United Nations Special Envoy to Libya, Abdullah Batili, called on the main institutional parties in Libya to dialogue without inviting the Libyan government headed by Osama Hammad
, which ignited the anger of Libyan political and official parties and they considered it an invitation to division.
Batili’s initiative included the desire to reach a political settlement on the controversial issues related to the implementation of the electoral process, and to identify the outstanding issues that must be resolved to enable the Election Commission to begin implementing the election laws issued by the House of Representatives.
While political observers and representatives considered Batili’s five-year initiative a failure, House of Representatives member Khalifa Al-Daghari said that the initiative did not study the internal reactions well, whether at the political level or at the popular level, and did not even study the external reactions by the parties involved in the Libyan issue.
First Deputy Chairman of the High Council of State, Masoud Obaid, said that Batili did not study this initiative well, and did not prepare it in the required manner, and it is a waste of time.
Popular consens
us
Politicians, parliamentarians, and the masses of the Libyan people, through many meetings, seminars, gatherings, and electronic platforms, expressed their desire to contain all differences and reject foreign interference that hinders the dream of elections, and demanded that they be held at the latest in the first half of the new year 2024.
They stressed that if the dream of elections comes true, Libyans will be able to choose a new president and parliament, in addition to the results of the elections in restoring the security and stability of the country and unifying its official institutions.
Source: Libyan News Agency
