Head of the Libyan Council of State (HCS), Khaled Al-Mishri called for a boycott of the elections scheduled for 24 December.
He also called for a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the High National Electoral Committee (HNEC), the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the Libyan Parliament to protest the “flawed” election law.
During a meeting in Tripoli with MP’s, HCS members, and mayors, Al-Mishri urged the Libyan people not to participate in the elections as voters or candidates.
“Allowing criminals to run for office and engage in political work is equal to allowing Nazism and fascism to engage in political work,” he noted.
The participants in the meeting claimed that there were numerous legal and constitutional fallacies regarding the electoral process currently taking place in Libya. They also demanded that Presidential and Parliamentary elections be held based on laws and an “agreed-upon constitutional basis,” in accordance with the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA).
Notably, Al-Mishri stated on Thursday that Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar “will never rule, even if it costs hundreds of thousands of bodies. If Haftar becomes president, the western region will pick up their weapons and fight Hafter,” during an interview with Al-Jazeera.
Hafter is the Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), which controls the eastern and southern regions of Libya.
Al-Mishri rejected the election laws ratified by the Libyan Parliament, claiming that the law is “tailored” for Haftar to take over the presidency. “The countries supporting Haftar were behind the laws related to the elections, which were tailored to him,” he claimed
He called for “commitment to what was agreed upon from the constitutional declaration, the political agreement, and the decisions of the Security Council.” He also claimed that “the United Nations does not have the necessary influence in Libya.”
The HCS Head said that the election laws did not take into account the political agreement and the outcomes of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), and were not presented to the council.
“If Haftar becomes Libya’s upcoming president, he will not be able to control the populated western region; because he led a bloody war for years there, and therefore he will not be able to rule that region on the ground. I think the elections will not take place on 24 December,” he noted.
In September, Al-Mishri called on the Parliament to postpone the Presidential elections for at least a year.
Parliament Speaker, Ageela Saleh announced his ratification of a Presidential election law issued on 9 September. The HCS rejected this step and said it will not recognize the law “that was passed without a legal vote or consensus.”
Al-Mishri said that the council has prepared a constitutional rule, and proposed to include it in the constitutional declaration. It also called for holding the parliamentary elections first to establish a two-chamber Parliament (senators and representatives) on 24 December.
“Then for a year, the draft constitution will be reviewed and approved, and the date of the Presidential elections will be set, which we do not see as generating stability in Libya at the present time,” he added.
He claimed that the HCS possesses some competencies in partnership with the Libyan Parliament. “According to the political agreement, laws are ratified by them, after consensus between the two houses,” he said.
Notably, Libya’s elections are supposed to be held on 24 December, as agreed by the LPDF last year in a UN-brokered deal.