A UN mediation to promote an agreement between rival Libyan camps on a constitutional framework allowing the holding of elections ended in another failure on Monday, leaving the political crisis that the country is going through with no end in sight.
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Gathered in Cairo from June 12 to 19 under the auspices of the United Nations, representatives of the Parliament, installed in eastern Libya, and the High Council of State (HCE) which acts as a senate and which is based in Tripoli (West), did not reach agreement on the text supposed to govern the presidential and legislative elections which were initially to be held at the end of 2021. “The third and last round of negotiations between the House of Representatives and the HCE on the Libyan constitutional aspect ended in the early morning of June 20“, announced on Twitter the special adviser to the UN secretary general for Libya, the American Stephanie Williams.
“Rejoicing Within Ten Days”
“Divergences persist on the measures governing the transitional period leading up to the elections“, she conceded, even if this “joint committee reached broad consensus on contentious articles of Libya’s draft constitution“. Welcoming the members of both chambers for their efforts to “resolve their differences on a number of complex issuesStephanie Williams recalled that Libyans, nearly 3 million of whom had registered to vote, “deserve nothing less from (their) political leaders“.
In her capacity as Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General for Libya, Stephanie Williams invited the Presidents of both Houses “to meet within ten days (…) to resolve outstanding issues“. The holding of presidential and legislative elections on a foreseeable date, postponed sine die in December 2021, seems highly unlikely due to the very strong differences between political rivals and tensions on the ground.
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Two governments have been vying for power since March. That of Tripoli, which was put into orbit in early 2021 under the aegis of the UN to lead the transition until elections, and a government formed in March and supported by Parliament, which has temporarily taken up residence in Sirte, for lack of to be able to take office in the capital. Libya has been in chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.
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