On Tuesday, the Speaker of the Libyan Parliament, Ageela Saleh met with the Chairman of the High National Elections Commission (HNEC), Emad Al-Sayeh.
According to a statement, Saleh was “briefed on the progress of the Commission’s work, in addition to its preparations for organising the elections once it receives the election laws from the 6+6 Joint Committee.”
The 6+6 Joint Committee was formed by the Libyan Parliament and the High Council of State (HCS) to establish electoral laws, under the 13th Constitutional Amendment.
According to Italy’s Nova news agency, the Committee members will meet in Morocco next week. This is to continue talks on drafting legislation governing the elections planned for later this year.
The committee held its first meeting on 5 April in Tripoli, while a second meeting was also held at the beginning of May.
During the last meeting, there was “a convergence of views among the members of the committee”, said the official Spokesman of the Libyan Parliament, Abdullah Blaiheg. He added that a “working mechanism was also agreed upon.”
On his part, Fathhallah Al-Sariri, a member of the Committee said that they “will work to lay legal and technical foundations for joint work in the spirit of one team.”
He stressed that they would “exert all efforts to fulfil the people’s desires to hold Parliamentary and Presidential elections.”
Notably, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) vowed that it will provide technical and logistical support to the Committee to establish electoral laws.
The UN Envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily urged the leaders of the two chambers to expedite the work of the committee, and publish a timebound work program.
“For elections to take place this year, the electoral laws must be completed in time for the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) to begin implementing the electoral process by early July,” Bathily said in his brief to the UN Security Council in March.
Libya has been in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime leader Moammar Gaddafi in 2011. The county has for years been split between rival administrations, each backed by rogue militias and foreign governments.
The current stalemate grew out of the failure to hold elections in December 2021, and the refusal of Prime Minister Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba, who is leading the transitional government, to step down. In response, the country’s eastern-based Parliament appointed Bashagha, who has for months sought to install his government in Tripoli.
