On Wednesday, the Head of Libya’s Presidential Council (PC), Mohamed Al-Mnifi held a meeting with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergey Vershinin in the presence of the Russian Ambassador to Qatar, Dmitry Dugadkin.
In a statement, the PC’s media office said that the meeting took place on the sidelines of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries on 5 March.
The officials “discussed the latest developments in the political situation in Libya, and ways to advance the political process,” according to the statement.
They also voiced their “strong support for holding Parliamentary and Presidential elections in Libya in 2023.”
Al-Mnifi affirmed the Council’s support for all efforts made to secure elections before the end of the current year.
During a meeting with the UN Envoy for Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily in Tripoli, Al-Mnifi stressed that these efforts should be based on “Libyan ownership.”
Bathily has briefed Al-Mnifi on his recent meetings and talks on Libya, in addition to his recent briefing to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
According to the PC’s Media Office, Bathily stressed the importance of the role played by the Presidential Council in supporting the efforts of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL)
“The UN Envoy also hailed the PC for reconciling all Libyan parties as a neutral body that stands at the same distance from all parties,” the statement concluded.
Notably, Bathily has announced an initiative aimed at enabling legislative and Presidential elections this year, and will set up a high-level steering panel, he told the United Nations Security Council on Monday.
During his briefing, Bathily said the mechanism “would bring together representatives of political institutions, major political figures, tribal leaders, civil society organizations, security officials, and other relevant groups.”
Bathily has said in televised statements that his upcoming roadmap “will be supported by all international and local actors inside and outside Libya.”
He added: “We put forward this set of recommendations that will lead to a roadmap for holding elections in 2023.”
The UN envoy pointed out that the “elected legitimate institutions are what will achieve stability in Libya. We aspired to achieve this, and there are many expectations about the electoral process through political dialogue.”
Bathily stressed the need for all parties to “come together to discuss the security of the electoral process, and how to best conduct it.”
The UN Envoy pointed out that the “international community has a role to support the intra-Libyan solution, and now it is in the development stage.”
