The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit called on the Libyan parties to hold dialogue and agree on a constitutional basis leading to elections.
In a television interview with Egypt’s Sada El-Balad channel, Aboul Gheit affirmed that “there is a crisis in the Libyan file, and that there are no positive results or any progress in it so far.”
Notably, the 6+6 Joint Committee for the Preparation of Electoral Laws held a meeting at the headquarters of the Parliament’s Diwan branch in Tripoli.
During the meeting, members exchanged discussions about the electoral laws. They also agreed on the work mechanisms, in addition to communicating with the authorities and institutions related to the electoral process.
The Committee was formed by the Libyan Parliament and the High Council of State (HCS) to establish electoral laws under the 13th Constitutional Amendment.
Fathhallah Al-Sariri, a member of the Committee said earlier that the committee 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.”
On the other hand, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has 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 programme.
“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 last week.
Bathily noted that the Chairman of HNEC, Emad Al-Sayeh informed him that, “while awaiting the electoral laws and the provision of necessary funds, the Commission has started initial preparations for the electoral process.”
He called on the Libyan government to provide HNEC with “all necessary resources to complete its mandated tasks in a timely manner.”
“Leaders and representatives of military units and security formations operating in western, eastern, and southern Libya committed to supporting all stages of elections, reject violence throughout Libya, take practical steps for the safe return of internally displaced persons, release detainees, and address the missing persons issue in the context of national reconciliation,” Bathily told the Security Council.