Egypt talks: Libyan leaders agree to draw roadmap to hold elections

CAIRO – 5 January 2023: Libyan leaders held talks in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Wednesday, during which they agreed on drawing a “clear and specified” roadmap later in order to hold the long-awaited elections.

Speaker of Libya’s House of Representatives Aguila Saleh and Chairman of the Higher Council of State Khaled Al-Mishri issued a joint declaration following the talks in the headquarters of the Egyptian House of Representatives.

During the meeting, they agreed on drawing a roadmap that ensures completing all the required measures to complete the electoral process, including those related to the bases, laws, executive measures, and the unification of institutions.

As per the declaration, a joint committee of the house and the Council will be in charge of referring the country’s constitutional document to the two bodies so that they pass it in accordance with the system of each of them.

The declaration paid tribute to the Egyptian leadership and people for hosting and preparing the suitable climate for the Constitutional Track talks, which resulted in this agreement.

The Libyan House and Council also thanked all local and international parties, especially the United Nations, for the support they have provided to Libya.

They also expressed appreciation for all sisterly and friendly countries that have sought Libyan stability and territorial integrity.

‘Respecting Libyans’ will’

During their visit, Saleh and Mishri met with Speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives Hanafi El-Gebaly.

Saleh affirmed that Egypt has been directly keen to ensure the Libyan state’s interests and has supported the Libyan people to overcome the current crisis and prevent foreign interference in Libya’s affairs.

Egypt has also sponsored meetings between various Libyan parties to ensure Libya-Libya consensus with the aim of finding solutions to the current state of political division, which has negatively impacted the citizens’ lives, Saleh added.

Egypt has been pushing forward efforts of respecting the will of the Libyan people in deciding on their leaders through ballot boxes of the presidential and parliamentary elections at the earliest opportunity, Saleh said.

Egypt has also communicated with politicians, military men and social powers without mediators and paved the way for all meetings with the aim of ending the conflict, Saleh stated.

Thanks to the Egyptian efforts, Saleh said, a great consensus has been achieved between the Libyan House and Higher Council of State, where they agreed on the need for quick end of the constitutional track and for taking all measures required to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.

Libya has been mired in political turmoil as the government of Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, which was formed through a UN process in 2021, has been blamed for not managing to hold the elections as planned in December of that year.

Road to elections

This has led the Libyan house to select a new government under Fathi Bashagha, a step that Egypt has supported.

Egypt has hosted rounds of talks within the framework of the UN-sponsored Libyan constitutional track meetings between delegations from the East-based Parliament and the High Council of State.

The delegations discussed the constitutional arrangements to hold the long-awaited presidential and parliamentary elections, which will send Libyans to ballot boxes to express their free will after years of conflict and political turmoil.

Cairo also hosted the meetings of the Joint Military Committee 5 + 5 to build on the achievements of the committee since the signing of the ceasefire agreement in Libya in October 2020.

The constitutional track meetings started in Cairo on 13 April and the second round started in May, while the third round was concluded in June.

This third round of talks come amid a critical time after clashes rocked the Libyan capital of Tripoli last month when parliament-appointed Bashagha entered the city to take over government.

Bashagha left the city shortly after that following armed clashes with forces loyal to the Tripoli administration under Dbeibah, who refused to cede power except after elections are held.

Although the parties have agreed on many articles over the past two rounds of talks, a number of key articles are still pending.

In April, the rival parties in Libya held their first constitutional track meeting in Cairo, where they agreed on continuing efforts to draw up a constitutional and legislative framework that enables holding presidential and parliamentary vote as soon as possible.

During the second round in April, delegations of the House of Representatives and the High Council of State concluded their talks after agreeing on 140 articles of the draft constitution.

According to a closing statement circulated by media after the second round of talks, the Libyan parties established a task force to prepare a compromise formulation regarding the articles agreed upon during the meeting to refer them to the parliament and state council for consideration.