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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 7 January 2021:
Libya’s High National Elections Commission (HNEC) said yesterday that it is 70 percent ready and preparing to hold national presidential and parliamentary elections on the 24 December of this year.
HNEC member, Abdelhakim Belkheir, was quoted saying yesterday that HNEC is dealing with all parties and that a large number of members of the two governments are pushing for elections.
He said next week HNEC’s offices will be opened in the southern region, adding that the value allocated to it after the adoption of the new exchange rate adjustment will be $10 million, stressing that it will not be enough to hold the elections.
Belkheir stressed that HNEC was promised it would be provided the required support from the responsible authorities and has the right in accordance with the law to contract with any public or private media institution, adding that contracting with the public media will guarantee it the opportunity to raise awareness and free publicity and avoid it paying its costs.
HNEC receives LD 50 million
It will be recalled that on 21 December UNSMIL had reported that HNEC had received LD 50 million for election preparations from the internationally recognized Libyan government in Tripoli.
This comes after the prime minister of the Tripoli Libyan government, Faiez Serraj, had pledged on 16 November to allocate funds to HNEC on the back of an announcement by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) meeting in Tunis (9-17 November) to hold constitutionally based Libyan elections on 24 December 2021.
Serraj had also, in his 23 August speech, called for Libya-wide General Elections in March 2021 as part of his reaction to public unrest manifested in the August protests across Libya.
In response to that call for elections, HNEC head Emad Al-Sayeh complained in media comments on 3 September that his organization was not ready to hold elections due to the lack of funds provided by the Serraj government.
HNEC receives LD 50 million for 2021 election preparations: UNSMIL’s Williams | (libyaherald.com)
HNEC welcomes allocation of LD 50 million for planned elections | (libyaherald.com)
Tripoli government to allocate funds for planned December 2021 elections | (libyaherald.com)
