Member of Libya’s High Council of State (HCS), Abdel-Salam Al-Safrani stated that the initiative of the UN Envoy to Libya, Stephanie Williams, “has reached a dead end.”
Al-Safrani added that the only way out of the political impasse, is “through the 12th constitutional amendment, or approving the Libyan Parliaments initiative to form a new government and draft a constitution. This will then be to put it to a referendum, at a later date.”
“This is the best settlement that can be implemented, and lead us to elections,” Al-Safrani concluded.
On 10 February, the Speaker of the Libyan Parliament, Ageela Saleh announced the unanimous appointment of Fathi Bashagha as the new Prime Minister. But incumbent PM, Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba warned that the appointment of a new interim government could lead to war and chaos in the country. He renewed his pledge to only hand power over to an elected government.
Libya has been mired in a political crisis since the fall of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011. Observers fear that Libya will return to having two opposing governments, threatening the nation’s vital oil sector.
Williams is seeking to reach an agreement this month on electoral laws and constitutional arrangements. As well as push for elections in the country as soon as possible.
The issue of the constitutional basis and the elections law is a subject of constant disagreement between Libya’s political parties. It resulted in the collapse of the electoral process that was scheduled for December 2021.
Williams has proposed the formation of 12 member committee, evenly divided between MP’s and HCS members to set a constitutional basis for the elections.
The HCS welcomed Williams’ initiative, and participate in the talks in Tunisia, while the Parliament initially refused.
Notably, MP Ali Al-Takbali denounced the role played by Williams. In a press statement, he said: “Williams came to obstruct and not to solve, and she has no future in Libya. The international community puts such initiatives whenever Libyans get close to each other.”
“Williams’ initiative aims to shuffle the cards. The Libyan scene was going well through a purely Libyan initiative for the first time. It was the foreign interference that harmed us, and if the international community wanted to intervene again, their intervention would only lead to obstruction,” he added.