The US Ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland stated that “Libya has the technical ability to hold elections, what it needs is the political will.”
During a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba, the US Envoy stressed the importance of “finalizing a constitutional basis and moving swiftly to elections.”
In August, 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.”
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.
Earlier this week, Al-Sayeh said that Libya’s election laws, “are primarily responsible for securing the electoral process.” During his attendance at a simulation of the elections, Al-Sayeh added that “the elections were postponed in order for us to be ready to hold them, and we are currently in the stage of developing competencies. Elections require a fair law accepted by all.”
He noted that he had made high-level contacts, to ensure that the elections would be secured. Al-Sayeh stressed that “if we had a fair election law, agreed upon by all parties, the elections would be able to proceed.”
Libya has been mired in conflict since Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011. Plagued by divisions between competing institutions in the east and west, Libya remains split between rival forces, with two opposing executives in place since February.