By Sami Zaptia.
London, 16 December 2020:
UNSMIL reported yesterday that it has been unable to get the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), gathered virtually yesterday, to agree on a new mechanism for choosing Libya’s new unified government. The LPDF failed to even agree on the decision-making threshold for the selection mechanism for the new government.
This new Government of National Unity (GNU) would act in an interim manner guiding Libya’s necessary constitutional arrangements and holding election in December 2021.
Publicising Stephanie Williams virtual speech to the LPDF, UNSMIL reported that it was only able to reach 71 out of the 75 members of the LPDF. Only 50 of these voted while 21 abstained. UNSMIL said it was unable to reach 2 participants, while one participant withdrew prior to the vote from the dialogue for personal reasons. The 75th member was sadly the HoR member who recently died.
Out of 50 votes, 36 voted in favour of the:
“61% threshold with a 50%+1 endorsement at the regional level”
and 14 voted in favour of the:
“2/3 threshold”
on the decision-making threshold for the selection mechanism for a new unified Libyan government.
As a result, UNSMIL has decided to form an advisory committee of LPDF members to ‘‘bridge the differences’’ and hasten a consensus on choosing a voting mechanism for the new unified Libyan government.
Meanwhile, UNSMIL reminded that the ‘‘clock’’ towards the planned 24 December 2021 elections ‘‘is ticking’’. With this in mind, UNSMIL said they will not allow the lack of progress in choosing the mechanism for choosing the next government to hinder the progress to the elections.
Article 4 of the interim Roadmap announced by LPDF prescribes that a legal committee is established to make the necessary constitutional arrangements to hold constitutional elections
LPDF members have put their names forward to be in this committee and UNSMIL said it will announce them in the next few days.
UNSMIL also revealed that it proposes the LPDF adopt an amendment to Article 3 of the agreed Roadmap to set the start date for the ‘‘preparatory phase’’ as 21 December 2020 to ensure elections are held by 24 December. It also reported that it will notify both the House of Representatives and the High Council of State as the constitutionally concerned institutions to address the constitutional arrangements.
UNSMIL revealed that it is in contact with Libya’s High National Election Commission (HNEC) in preparation for next December’s elections.
Inadvertently, Williams also revealed that her replacement as full UNSMIL head will not be taking up their position as she will be meeting LPDF members in January.
Here is Stephanie Williams’ full speech to the LPDF yesterday:
Libyan critical economic reform talks progressing in Geneva
I have asked you to join me today while I am here in Geneva where I am with the co-Chairs of the Economic Working Group, the EU, the USA and the Republic of Egypt. We are collectively chairing a meeting that is bringing together some members of the Libyan Economic Experts Commission, as well as representatives of both branches of the Central Bank of Libya, the Audit Bureau, the Ministry of Finance and the National Oil Corporation to discuss the critical economic reforms needed.
I am very pleased with the ongoing discussion, which is addressing currency reform, the banking crisis, the unification of the national budget, and including a timetable to implement all of these reforms.
This meeting here in Geneva is taking place in the context of some positive developments on the economic track, including the full resumption of oil production, thanks to the significant efforts of the National Oil Corporation and to the decision by the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Libya to convene a board meeting tomorrow that is expected to tackle the unification of the exchange rate. I would note here that this is the first board meeting that will take place after a period of five years, and I think this is a source of significant hope for the Libyan people. Moreover, UNSMIL continues to facilitate the international audit review of both branches of the Central Bank of Libya; the audit is now nearly halfway complete. As you know it is part of the vital process of re-unification of the Central Bank and to fully re-establish the national accountability mechanisms.
Today in the economic meeting we are discussing the budget unification and a clear roadmap forward and of course linked to all of this is the management of the oil revenue, there is a decision taken to hold the revenues right now, part of that is pending what happens in this group [the LPDF], but there is now a momentum on the economic track and it reflects what is the constituency for change in the country.
I am hopeful that the meeting here in Geneva will be another practical, tangible step forward, together with the work of the JMC 5+5 to implement the ceasefire, to address the real problems and with real and pragmatic solutions that can respond to the needs and aspirations of all Libyans to live their lives safely, in dignity and prosperity.
Results of vote on choosing mechanism for choosing new unified Libyan government
But first I want to highlight, to illustrate for you the sheer amount of time and energy that we have already spent on the executive process. Since we met in Tunis in the middle of November, we have now convened virtually on six occasions, on 23 and 25 November, on 1, 2, 5 and 10 December. We have spent over 30 hours online, in addition to the surveys and the voting, which we have conducted on the phone, which have constituted another 30 to 35 hours of the time, all of this in an effort to try and move forward on the selection mechanism and the decision-making threshold. In order to overcome this deadlock and move past the issue, we have proposed two options – we believe that they could have secured an acceptable level of consensual decision-making threshold.
In this vote we reached 71 participants 50 of you voted, 21 abstained, 2 participants we could not contact at all, one participant withdrew prior to the vote from the dialogue for personal reasons, and I do not have authorization to share a name or circumstances of the withdrawal and of course, there was the dear departed Omar. I will emphasize here that we made every effort, repeated efforts to reach you, we extended the deadline last night until midnight in an effort to absolutely reach everybody. Two participants never acknowledged the outreach from the Mission.
Out of 50 votes, 36 voted in favor of the “61% threshold with a 50%+1 endorsement at the regional level” and 14 voted in favor of the “2/3 threshold”.
I want to reiterate that this vote was exclusively meant to identify a decision-making threshold for the selection mechanism.
It is however clear to me that so far you collectively continue to struggle to agree on a way forward on the selection mechanism for the executive authority.
Advisory committee
I thus intend to now form an advisory committee amongst you that will help, I hope, bridge the differences so that we can make concrete progress.
I trust that I can count on your support and on the mutual trust that I believe we have built amongst each other for this approach, which I intend to define over the course of the next session, which will be held in a few days.
The clock is ticking to election day..
But meanwhile, the clock is ticking, and we have a collective responsibility before the Libyan people to advance this process so as to fulfil a key objective of the Roadmap which is enabling and making a reality, the holding of elections on 24 December 2021.
I am going to use an American expression here, “We are going to walk and chew gum at the same time.” We will not allow the executive selection “Fawdha” to impact on the goal of national elections.
It is now urgent that we focus on making progress on article 4 of the Roadmap, which is an indispensable element for holding national elections, by the date that you agreed to, and you announced, and which concerns the establishment of a legal committee for the constitutional arrangements.
Before we left Tunis, I requested that you put forward your nominations for the establishment of the legal committee and we have received your nominations and I will inform you of the composition of the committee in the next few days.
We are applying the principle that we want the broadest participation in these various committees; this means if you are already a member of one committee, you can’t be a member of another committee. There are now 73 participants and we want to give the opportunity to all participants to contribute.
Start date for the ‘‘preparatory phase’’: 21 December 2020
And now we also need to focus on another important issue which is the start date for the preparatory phase. The Roadmap, in Article III, states that the preparatory phase will begin at the time of the final announcement of the outcomes of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum that was held in Tunis in November 2020. We have been trying to finalize the outcomes over the past month and so far, the outcomes are partial.
Amendment of Roadmap, establishment of the legal committee
So, I suggest that you adopt by acclamation an amendment to the Roadmap, indicating that the start date of the preparatory phase will be set on the date of the establishment of the legal committee, which I intend to convene on 21 December. We will convene virtually on the 21st and I will convene the committee physically right after the start of the new year. So, we will now start to work on the terms of reference and the timelines.
House of Representatives and High Council of State need to make constitutional arrangements
We will then officially notify – at the time of the establishment of the Committee -, the House of Representatives and the High Council of State as the concerned institutions to address the constitutional arrangements, of this amendment to the Roadmap and of the establishment of the legal committee.
I am making this proposal in my capacity as the mediator and in the interest of advancing this process and reflecting on the fact that we need to fully finalise our work and cannot create any obstacles for the electoral process to run its course.
UNSMIL and HNEC preparing for 2021 elections
I have been in direct contact with Dr. Imad al-Sayeh [Head of HNEC] over the last couple of days where he briefed me on his visit to the East, the HNEC readiness, requirement and timelines. So, we, in the Mission, are fully engaged on elections.
Williams will still be in her position in January 2021
I am briefing the Security Council today in a closed session today at 5:00 PM Libya time. I also want to inform you that I am going to be with you for a little while longer and that’s why I will be able to convene the meeting in January [of the legal committee].
I am fully committed, the train has left the station on this process, there is no going back. The expectations are high internationally, but most importantly among the Libyan people, so let’s collectively, let’s not let them down, let’s be smart and forward looking and working together.
A lot has been sacrificed so far and I think that we need to really work together, and I count on you to do that on your own time as well not just in these sessions so please invest together.
I want to emphasize that we need to look forward, let’s not litigate the past there has been a lot of litigation of the past, but we need to look forward.
Thank you
