Bathily obstructs course of Libyan solution, opens door to armed conflict

Mostafa Mohamed

Despite the results produced by Libya’s 6+6 Committee, composed of six members of the Libyan parliament and six members of the High Council of State, to set electoral laws at home, these results were not sufficient for UN Envoy to Libya Abdoulaye Bathily, who created several disagreements regarding the elections, which observers described as “obstructing” the Libyan track and keeping the situation as it is in the country.

Disputed points

In the briefing given by Bathily to the UN Security Council on Libya, he confirmed that there are four points of disagreement regarding the Libyan elections between members of the House of Representatives and the High Council of State. These points include the criterion for eligibility to run in the presidential elections and holding a second round of presidential elections even if a candidate obtains more than 50% of the votes in the first round of voting, in addition to the clause guaranteeing the holding of parliamentary elections after the presidential elections, and finally the clause related to allocating seats for women in the next parliament.

Alternative plan

With regard to what has been accomplished in Libya by the 6+6 Committee to set electoral laws, the UN envoy to Libya reaffirmed that what the committee concluded during its recent round of discussions in the Moroccan town of Bouznika is not sufficient to settle the outstanding problems in the way of elections, where Bathily will resort to an alternative plan, which is the formation of a new political dialogue committee that will set a road map.

Mohammed Bushagma, a researcher of Libyan affairs, confirmed that the level of optimism rose a while ago with Bathily’s briefing before the Security Council, and most of the observers had the same expectation, but a week ago, and with a lot of conversations circulating inside Libya and by following up the reactions of all the parties controlling the scene, Bathily returned with some promises that are not intended to end the situation in Libya.

Impasse

In exclusive statements to the Reference, Bushagma explained that Bathily, following the briefing he gave, was not and will not be an exception from the rest of the envoys who preceded him, as he is an employee who came to implement what was decreed for him, where he was expected to embarrass the House of Representatives and the High Council of State and propose emergency solutions that force everyone to go to elections and form a mini-government, and thus he announced that the election path has reached a dead end, that the formation of a new government is a matter of contention, and that the exit of foreign forces and mercenaries is difficult and far from reach.

Bushagma confirmed that Bathily turned into a manager of the crisis and maintained its continuity with the international community. Rather, the most dangerous thing in his briefing was that he supported the continuation of the situation as it is now and opened the door for any party to escalate the armed conflict in light of a frozen situation if it finds the strength to do so.