By Sami Zaptia.
London, 12 July 2021:
Deputy Presidency Council head Musa Al-Koni revealed that he had put forward a proposal to the Libyan Supreme Court, the High National Election Commission (HNEC) and the UN mission of a Presidency Council decree with the force of law which would be published in the Official Gazette, to adopt a constitutional basis to get out of the current impasse in organizing the 24 December 2021 elections on time.
The revelation came yesterday during Koni’s interview with BBC Arabic.
Koni said this move comes in the face of the lack of agreement between Libya’s parliament (the House of Representatives – HoR) the High State Council (HSC) and the inability of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) to come to an agreement.
Recognizing the controversial nature of his proposal, Koni conceded that it may cause ‘‘some division as we seek unity.”
Koni said that the LPDF members who participated in the Geneva meeting had to overcome the bottlenecks we have reached now by agreeing to form a special committee that sets the constitutional basis for holding elections through voting, as happened in approving the current provisional Government of National Unity (GNU) led by Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba.
He said the failure by the LPDF to reach a consensus on the constitutional basis for the elections at its last meeting in Geneva is due to the insistence of the different parties in the LPDF on having their way of managing the elections.
He said the HSC wants a referendum on the constitution while parliament wants to elect the president directly through the people and that there is a bloc that believes that the president should be elected by parliament.
He warned that the Libyan people are in a state of ferment and intense anger at the politicians and their performance, and see them as the main cause of the crises they are experiencing.
He, meanwhile, agreed with the idea that the Libyan people should elect their president directly rather than through parliament.
Koni warned that all these obstacles would disrupt the predetermined date for holding the elections on time.
