Forty presidential candidates in Libya have called for a deadline for holding the first round of Presidential and Parliamentary elections. This is coming after Emad Al-Sayah, Chairman of Libya’s High National Election Commission (HNEC) said the commission is technically ready to hold elections, as Libyan voters demand.
The presidential candidates in a joint statement blamed the Libyan Parliament and the High Council of State (HCS) for disrupting the electoral process.
They urged the two chambers to immediately agree on a constitutional basis to pave the way for Libyans to choose their representatives.
They also blamed the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Special Envoys and foreign Ambassadors for interrupting the political track.
They called on Libyans to “take the streets and to demonstrate, in order to secure their rights, choose their representatives, to end the state of political and institutional division in Libya.”
In August, the Head of Libya’s High National Electoral Commission (HNEC) Emad Al-Sayeh announced that the “force majeure that made it impossible to hold the elections last December has now ended.”
Al-Sayeh said that the delay in issuing the election laws was the first factor in the force majeure.
The HNEC Head stressed that elections are the only solution to the political logjam in the country. He added that “what is rumoured about foreign interference is incorrect, given that the electoral process is a Libyan decision.”
Al-Sayeh said that a “force majeure” prevented it from organising the elections, after political parties failed to reach a compromise. The long-awaited Libyan elections were supposed to be held on December 24, 2022.
Libya is engrossed in a political and constitutional standstill that has sparked deadly demonstrations and riots across the country by frustrated citizens, a senior UN official said last week.