Libyan parliamentary committee refuses to set new date for elections

A committee of the Libyan Parliament refused Monday to set a new date for the presidential election initially scheduled for December 24 before being postponed, leaving the fate of this crucial vote unclear.

During a long-awaited session of the Parliament, held on Monday in Tobruk (east), this commission in charge of monitoring the elections presented a report concluding that it would be risky to set a new date for this state, thus opposing the date of January 24 proposed by the Libyan High Electoral Commission (HNEC).

The commission has instead advocated the establishment of a “new roadmap, realistic and applicable, defining its stages, instead of setting new dates and repeating the same mistakes.

In the report read before the MPs by its chairman Al-Hadi al-Sghayer, the commission also proposed the establishment of a commission to draft a constitution, abolished by the former regime Muammar Gaddafi in 1969, and called for “reshuffling the executive”.

The parliamentary session, which continues on Yuesday, has not yet debated the commission’s proposals.

Less than 48 hours before D-day, the presidential election was postponed due to differences over the legal basis for the vote. The same parliamentary commission concluded that it was “impossible” to hold the election on the scheduled date, even though a postponement had been expected for several days, due to insurmountable disagreements between rival camps over an election that would be contested by several divisive candidates.