The delegations of the House of Representatives (HP, parliament) and the Supreme State Council (SSC) of Libya were able to resolve many contentious issues during the third round of consultations on the constitutional framework for the elections in Cairo from June 13, but disagreements remain. Stephanie Williams, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Libya, said this on Monday at a press conference broadcast by Al Arabiya.
"By this morning, the joint committee was able to agree on many controversial articles of the draft Libyan constitution," she said. - "However, there is still disagreement over the measures that relate to the transitional period leading up to the elections".
"I ask the bureaus of the PP and the SSC to meet again within 10 days at a place of their own choice in order to overcome the points of contention," Williams reported. - "I also call for fair and transparent elections in Libya as soon as possible and thank all parties for making concessions for the Libyan people".
Negotiations between the parliament and the SSC first began in this format in the Egyptian capital on April 13. The current round, as the UN secretary-general's adviser said at its opening, was supposed to be the last.
Constitutional issues
Parliamentary and presidential elections in Libya were to be held on December 24, 2021, but they were postponed indefinitely at the very last moment because of the impossibility of organizing voting and flaws in the law. In particular, the High Electoral Commission stated that gaps and serious omissions in the laws on the expression of will led to a conflict between the election commission and the judiciary over the candidates, which is unacceptable.
Libya is currently relying on the 2011 Constitutional Declaration adopted by the Transitional National Council after the assassination of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. It was to be replaced by a permanent constitution, drafted by 2017 by the Constitutional Assembly specially created three years earlier. It was planned to be submitted to a national referendum, for which a special legislative framework was prepared, but the plebiscite did not take place due to the later outbreak of hostilities between the west and east of the country.
When in April 2021 it became clear that the deputies would not have time to prepare and hold a referendum on the constitution by December, they hurriedly developed and adopted laws on the election of the president and deputies of the legislative body, which ultimately contained many legal omissions and loopholes.
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Based on materials from TASS