On Monday, the majority of the Libyan Parliament announced their rejection of the proposal put forward by the UN Advisor to Libya (SASG), Stephanie Williams. This is regarding the formation of a joint committee between the High Council of State (HCS), and the Parliament to set a constitutional basis for holding elections.
Over 90 MP’s said in a joint statement, that Williams’ initiative “is an unjustified parallel path, because a Libyan-Libyan agreement was previously reached, between the Parliament and the HCS.”
On Friday, Williams proposed the formation of the committee, consisting of six members from either legislature. The HCS welcomed Williams’s initiative, and formed a committee. It adopted a mechanism for selecting the committee members, provided that they will be elected in the next session.
Notably, MP Ali Al-Takbali denounced the role played by Williams. In a press statement, he said: “Williams came to obstruct and not to solve, and she has no future in Libya. The international community puts such initiatives whenever Libyans get close to each other.”
“Williams’ initiative aims to shuffle the cards. The Libyan scene was going well through a purely Libyan initiative for the first time. It was the foreign interference that harmed us, and if the international community wanted to intervene again, their intervention would only lead to obstruction,” he added.
Notably, the Parliament-back Prime Minister, Fathi Bashagha said that it is necessary to fully respect Libyan sovereignty, in order to lay a consensual constitutional basis leading to Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
Bashagha added in a statement on Saturday, that the government’s main goal is to hold transparent elections without delay, to achieve the aspirations of 2.8 million voters.