Will election of Takala close file of rapprochement between Libya’s High Council and House of Representatives?

Ahmed Adel

Mohamed Takala was elected to head Libya’s High Council of State after obtaining 67 votes in the run-off with his rival, Khaled El-Meshri, who received 62 votes. Meshri leaves office after five years spent as the chairman of Council following his first election on April 4, 2018.

The consultative High Council of State is the second chamber of the legislative authority in Libya and is a partner of the House of Representatives in preparing electoral laws.

The vote was attended by 131 members, which took place on Sunday, August 6, and six members were absent. The tally took place in the presence of representatives of each candidate.

In August 2022, the High Council of State re-elected Meshri as its head, with the support of 65 votes against 50 for his rival at the time, Al-Ajili Abu Sedil.

Who is he?

Mohamed Takala is a Libyan academic and politician, born on January 15, 1966. He obtained a doctorate in computer science from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 2008.

During his professional career, he worked between 2008 and 2012 as a faculty member in the College of Engineering in Al-Khums, and he was also dean of college between 2011 and 2012.

Takala entered the arena of political life in October 2011 as a member of the local council in the Libyan city of Al-Khums. After only ten months, he became a member of the General National Congress that ruled the country at the time, before its name was changed to the High Council of the State in accordance with the Skhirat Agreement in 2015.

After the Skhirat Agreement, Takala became a member of the High Council of State, then chairman of the Council’s Committee for the Development of Economic and Social Projects.

Takala was a member of the Council’s team at the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Tunis and Geneva, which was formed with the aim of drawing up a roadmap to get the country out of the crisis of political division.

Among his recent political positions, Takala joined the movement rejecting the thirteenth amendment of the Constitutional Declaration within the High Council of the State, and he also participated in refusing to form the 6+6 joint committee between the Council and the House of Representatives, which was formed at the end of March 2022 to develop laws and legislation for the elections to be held before the end of the year.

The thirteenth constitutional amendment approved by the House of Representatives and the High Council of State stipulated the “formation of a joint committee by the two houses, with six members from each house, to agree by a two-thirds majority of the members of each house, in order to prepare draft laws for referendum and elections.”

Takala’s relationship with Dabaiba

Local media reported that Takala had a close relationship with Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dabaiba, head of the Government of National Unity, the mandate of which has expired, and he is known for his deep disagreements with the House of Representatives, which indicates a possible change in the positions of the High Council of State regarding rapprochement with the House.

Dabaiba has refused to hand over power since February 2022, when the House of representatives had elected a new government headed by Fathi Bashagha, as Dabaiba requires elections to be held first.