The Chairman of Libya’s High National Elections Committee (HNEC), Emad Al-Sayeh announced that the “force majeure that made it impossible to hold the elections last December has now ended.”
During an interview with Libya’s Al-Sabah newspaper, Al-Sayeh said that the delay in issuing the elections laws was the first factor in the force majeure.
He stressed that elections are the only solution to end this crisis. As well as claiming that “what is rumoured about foreign interference is incorrect, given that the electoral process is a Libyan decision.”
Regarding the forged voting cards announced by Attorney General Al-Siddiq Al-Sour recently, Al-Sayeh said he “did not know anything about them. There are no communications with the Attorney General regarding this issue.”
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.
Al-Sayeh reiterated that the commission is technically ready to hold elections, as Libyan voters demand.
Notably, Al-Sour said the Public Prosecution monitored 3,829 forged ballot cards for the 2021 elections. “We also monitored the presence of 15,000 forged electoral cards during the 2012 General National Congress elections,” he added.
The Parliament withdrew confidence from the Government of National Unity (GNU) led by Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba, and appointed Fathi Bashagha to replace him. However, Dbaiba has refused to cede the power to his rival.