With the faltering elections… Are there other solutions to the Libyan crisis?

Walid Abdullah / Anatolia
Despite repeated calls internally and externally to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya, these calls did not materialize as a result of their collision with many obstacles, most notably the ongoing disputes between the House of Representatives and the Supreme Council of State.

On October 4, the House of Representatives issued electoral laws, which it said were approved by the joint committee (between representatives and the Supreme Council of State) “6+6” on June 6, following discussions in the Moroccan city of Bouznika.
However, the Supreme Council of State accused the representatives of making amendments to the laws that were approved within the committee (he did not explain them), and declared his adherence to the laws approved by the committee.

The House of Representatives did not care about the Supreme Council’s rejection of the laws it issued, as it published the electoral laws in the Official Gazette, which means that they became effective legislation in accordance with Libyan laws, while the High Electoral Commission was unable to implement these laws due to the existing political differences.

These points of contention between the two sides include the conditions for running for the presidential elections, as the State Council and some political parties insist on preventing military personnel and dual nationals from running for the presidency, while the House of Representatives insists on the opposite.

** Invitation of the UN envoy
With the faltering holding of presidential and parliamentary elections, at the beginning of the year, UN envoy Abdullah Batili renewed his call for Libyans to give priority to the needs of their people above all else, and called on them to come together and engage in constructive dialogue, and make the promise of holding elections a reality.

To resolve the existing crisis and the state of political impasse, on November 23, Batelli sent invitations to the main institutional parties in Libya to participate in a meeting that will be held during the coming period, with the aim of reaching a political settlement on issues of political disagreement related to the implementation of the electoral process.

What is meant by institutional parties is: the Presidential Council, the House of Representatives, the Supreme Council of State, the Government of National Unity, and the General Command of the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar.
However, many observers underestimated the possibility of the success of the UN initiative in particular, pointing out that the parties that were invited are considered one of the most important reasons for the “failure” and are not interested in holding elections, which means that the UN mission must search for other possible solutions to overcome the Libyan crisis.

** It is not easy to reach a solution
Libyan political analyst Ahmed Al-Tahami told Anadolu Agency, “The crisis in Libya is not easy to reach a solution due to the presence of many regional and international interventions in Libyan internal affairs, and each of these countries has special and common interests, so it is expected that the stalemate will continue.”
He considered that “solutions are unlikely unless the approaches of the United Nations mission and its envoy Abdullah Batili change and his attempt to provide solutions that reproduce the thinking of the former envoy Stephanie Williams, even though he lacks the amount of support she had, and he changes his thinking to delve deeper into the details of the Libyan crisis in order to provide him with fair solutions.” “.
Al-Tohamy said that Batelli “failed miserably due to his inability so far to address the Libyan crisis, and today he is not thinking about any serious solution, but is content with passing time and marketing initiatives that suggest that he is working on the file, but without any seriousness.”

** Popular uprising

In turn, Libyan journalist Musa Tehosay told Anadolu: “Unfortunately, currently there are no political solutions or options, including the Batelli initiative, which will bring together the five parties, but perhaps the popular uprising is one of the alternatives or possible solutions to untie the knot of the current political blockage.”

Tehosay added: “There is a possibility and potential for a popular uprising, despite the fact that many of the current ruling parties use the tribe as a powerful tool to maintain loyalties, and tribal and political polarization are powerful factors in dispersing the people’s power and will.”
Tehosay added: “Some tribal sheikhs in Libya have begun to play roles that go beyond the social factor and influence the tribal base affiliated with them and use this influence for political employment, and the sheikh has become the military, political and elite representative of his tribe.”

Tehusai pointed out, “The main problem in Libya lies in the five parties, which Batelli called on because of their unwillingness to leave their positions. However, Batelli has no other options and no tools to pressure these five parties because they are a fait accompli that has been imposing itself on the Libyans for more than a decade, and there is no horizon.” “Unfortunately, this approach will change.”
In November 2020, the Libyan Dialogue Forum in Tunisia agreed to hold the elections on December 24, 2021, but they were postponed due to the rejection of the electoral laws issued by the House of Representatives without agreement with the Supreme Council of State.
The Libyans aspire to hold elections that resolve a conflict crisis between two governments, one of which was appointed by the House of Representatives in early 2022, and the other is the national unity government headed by Abdul Hamid Dabaiba, who refuses to hand over anything except to a government that comes through a new elected parliament.