Morocco Hosts Inter-Libyan Meeting on Election Laws

Six members from Libya’s House of Representatives and six others representing the High State Council opened on Monday in the Sea Resort Moroccan city of Bouznika a meeting to discuss election laws and especially the requirements for presidential candidates.
The 6+6 committee is tasked with setting rules and regulations for the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in the country. The joint committee representing the two Libyan legislative bodies had agreed on drafting electoral laws to enable the holding of these long-delayed elections seen as critical to peace and stability.
A political process to resolve more than a decade of conflict in Libya has been stalled since an election scheduled for December 2021 collapsed amid disputes over the eligibility of major candidates.
The new inter-Libyan meeting convened in Morocco comes after several other consultations hosted by the Kingdom, enabling Libyans to deepen dialogue in a bid to resolve the political crisis rocking this country since the fall of Gaddafi regime in 2011.
Libya is split between warring factions in east and west. The existence of different, competing governmental institutions has led to increased instability in the country and has complicated the Libyan bureaucracy.
The prolonged lack of a cohesive governing body and unified political leadership exacerbates Libya’s political and economic instability. Last March, the UN Security Council adopted the initiative led by UN Envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, to launch a Libyan High-Level Panel for Elections (HLPE) which aims to facilitate the establishment of a legal framework and a roadmap for holding elections by the end of 2023.
However, Libyan stakeholders remain cautiously optimistic over the possibility of breaking political stalemate through the elections.