By Sami Zaptia.
London, 1 December 2020:
The Coordination meeting between the members of the Libyan Parliament, the House of Representatives (HoR) and the High State Council, the 13 + 13 Committee, started in Tangiers, Morocco, yesterday under the auspices of the UNSMIL. The meeting is planned to end today.
The meeting will discuss the deliberations of the ongoing Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), and the unification of visions on the political and constitutional tracks in Libya.
The 13+13 joint HoR-HSC Committee is not to be confused with last week’s HoR Tangiers meeting. The 2015 Skhirat Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) empowers the HoR and HSC through joint committees with the power to affect political changes to the Skhirat roadmap. The changes have to be agreed by both bodies.
Since 2015 they have failed to agree on any new change or even implementing their raison d’etre. These include approving the draft constitution, reforming the Presidency Council and government, unifying the split governments, unifying the split HoR and state institions such as the Central Bank of Libya, and holding constitutional elections.
Last week, a consultative meeting of the whole HoR was held in Tangiers, which culminated in the agreement to:
- Convene a unified meeting in Libya as soon as the members had returned from Tangiers
- End the split of the HoR and of state institutions
- Hold constitutionally based parliamentary and presidential elections
- End Libya’s transitional phase
- Implement all of the above within one year from convening a unified HoR session within Libya
