Libya’s High National Elections Commission (HNCE) held a meeting on Sunday to discuss the development of the voter registration system, and ways to improve it in the coming period.
HNEC Chairman, Emad Al-Sayeh led the meeting, which included representatives of the United Nations Election Support Team in Libya, and the Head of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems office in Libya (IFES).
They followed up on HNEC’s level of readiness to implement the expected elections. Al-Sayeh said earlier that the elections could be held in December 2022, if Libya’s rival legislatures agree on election laws by July.
“The commission will be able to set a date for the polling day in December, if it receives the approved electoral legislation in July. If we do not receive this next month, Libya’s elections will have to be postponed, because we would be unable to hold them at that time, similarly to last year,” Al-Sayeh told Al-Ain news.
The long-awaited Libyan elections were supposed to be held on 24 December 2022. HNEC said that a “force majeure” prevented it from organizing the elections, after political parties failed to reach an agreement.
The Parliament has withdrawn confidence from the Government of National Unity (GNU) led by Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba and appointed Fathi Bashagha to replace him. Dbaiba has since refused to cede power to his rival.
Al-Sayeh reiterated that they are technically ready to hold elections, as Libyan voters demand. He briefed the US Ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland that the only remaining obstacles are political in nature. The Ambassador stressed that there is no alternative to elections in resolving Libya’s years of turmoil.