Libyan crisis: Elections at crossroads between haste, obstruction and Brotherhood machinations

Mustafa Kamel

The Libyan elections have inevitably come between the neighboring countries and international community seeking to hasten them as an essential step in the path of stability and unification of Libya and between other threats coming from the Libyan Brotherhood, which seeks to break the Libyan road map by rejecting the law for holding the presidential election in December, describing it as unconstitutional and unenforceable.

Presidential election

The High National Election Commission (HNEC) in Libya announced that it had received the law on the presidential election issued by the House of Representatives regarding the election of the head of state by free and direct suffrage. It said in a statement on Sunday, September 12, that the law includes 77 articles clarifying the powers of the president, the conditions and procedures for candidacy and voting during the election, which is scheduled for December 24.

The official spokesman for the Libyan House of Representatives, Abdullah Blehaq, said in a statement, “The House of Representatives approved the draft law on electing the president directly by the people after the full discussion of the articles of the law,” explaining that the law was referred to the legislative committee in the House for final drafting.

Local Libyan media confirmed that the House of Representatives had issued the law to elect the president directly by the people, after parliament had approved the draft law last month after completing the discussion of its articles in full, referring it to the legislative committee for final drafting.

Fathi Al-Marimi, advisor to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh approved Law No. 1 of 2021 regarding the election of the head of state and determining his competencies, and it was referred to the HNEC, the United Nations Mission to Libya, and all competent Libyan authorities.

Hastening the elections

The embassies of France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States in Libya urged all Libyan actors to hold fair parliamentary and presidential elections on December 24, declaring their support for the efforts of the UN Support Mission in Libya in this regard.

The ambassadors of the five countries stressed, during a joint statement, the need to hold legislative and presidential elections in Libya on their due date at the end of December, considering that the Saleh’s ratification of the presidential election law is an important step in this direction.

“We, the ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States in Libya join UN Special Envoy Jan Kubis in urging all Libyan actors to ensure inclusiveness and freedom, and to hold fair parliamentary and presidential elections on December 24, 2021,” the joint statement said.

The statement added that such elections, as specified in the road map of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, are an essential step in achieving more stability and unifying Libya, stressing that the Libyan parliament announced steps to achieve this goal, as Saleh announced on September 8 the rules for the presidential election and the HNEC has made progress in preparations for holding presidential and parliamentary elections.

Regarding the timing and conclusion of the elections, the joint statement stressed that this matter represents important steps towards holding the elections on December 24, adding that all actors must realize that the time has now come to engage in the electoral framework and finalize it, taking into account all the legitimate concerns of the Libyans.

Brotherhood threats

While UN Special Envoy Jan Kubis warned that the failure to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on December 24 may renew division and conflict and frustrate efforts to unify the country after a decade of turmoil, the Libyan Brotherhood attacked the UN Mission, as leader Abdul Rahman Sewehli accused the United Nations of causing a grave breach of the road map and deviating from the mission’s powers.

Meanwhile, a number of those who described themselves as “Misrata notables” issued a statement in the presence of Salah Badi, a Brotherhood member and the leader of the terrorist militia known as the Al-Samoud Brigade, in which they commented on the presidential election law issued by the House of Representatives, declaring their rejection of the law and describing it as unconstitutional and unenforceable.

In the statement issued by the Brotherhood supporters, they said that they are keen on the necessity of restoring the trust to the people and holding transparent and fair elections in a stable and secure atmosphere, and therefore affirmed their rejection of the draft election law due to it be submitted unilaterally without voting on it in parliament or consulting the rest of the political parties. They claimed that there is a continuous attempt by the parliament leadership to breach the terms of the political agreement and the nature of the stage that requires consensus and leading the country to safety through the participation of all political parties in drafting the election law.

Election observers

As part of UN preparations to secure the elections, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres submitted a letter to the UN Security Council, in which he referred to the necessity of deploying an international team of ten observers working with the Libyan 5+5 Joint Military Committee to monitor the parties’ implementation of specific provisions of the ceasefire agreement.

Guterres expressed his concern about the militias’ continued use of violence to secure the subordination of high positions in the state to them, calling for the implementation of a large-scale process of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, as well as a consistent approach to security sector reform. He also noted that the lack of a defense minister is a major obstacle to advancing important institutional reforms as agreed upon in the road map.