On Sunday, the Head of the Libyan High National Elections Commission (HNEC), Emad Al-Sayeh, said that suspending the constitutional base leading to the country’s elections scheduled to take place on December 24th will waste time set for preparing for the elections.
In a televised interview, Al-Sayeh indicated that the Commission set the end of July as the deadline for receiving the electoral legislation, which is a necessary step for holding the elections as scheduled.
He explained that the information being raised about the constitutional path is not clear to the Libyan citizens. He indicated that going to the polls directly, without holding a referendum on the draft constitution, will lead to a fourth transitional stage.
“If Libyans voted ‘yes’ for the draft constitution, we will enter an 11-month transitional period. But if they voted ‘no’, the draft will be referred to the Constituent Assembly for amendment,” Al-Sayeh noted.
He stated that the High Council of State (HCS) and Parliament have failed to reach a compromise on the outcomes of the constitutional path.
Al-Sayeh stressed that the Commission is ready to hold a referendum on the draft constitution in the event it is passed by the House of Representatives (HoR), adding that going to elections requires laws from the legislative branch to be implemented.
On November 15th, the first round of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in Tunisia concluded with the announcement of a date for holding the parliamentary and presidential elections on December 24th, a historical date that marks Libya’s 70th anniversary.