Libya’s High Council of State voted on Thursday for a constitutional amendment intended to provide a basis for elections, but experts say the changes fail to address disagreements standing in the way of a long-delayed national vote.
Earlier this week, a special United Nations envoy for Libya moved to take charge of a stalled political process in order to enable elections that are seen as the path to resolving years of conflict.
Libya has been locked in a political stalemate since late 2021, when a scheduled election was cancelled because of disputes over the rules and the eastern-based parliament, the House of Representatives, withdrawing support from the UN-brokered interim government.
The interim government was a step to unite Libya’s two competing administrations – the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli and the House of Representatives based in the eastern city of Tobruk. But the interim government has since split, complicating the political process in the north African country.
Peacemaking efforts since then have focused on getting the House of Representatives and the High Council of State, an advisory body comprising of ex-GNA members based in the capital of Tripoli, to agree on a constitutional basis for elections and on voting rules.
Big political changes
Thursday’s vote approved a constitutional amendment that was issued last month by the House of Representatives and was presented as a step towards holding elections.
Foreign powers have long indicated that big political changes need the approval of both the House of Representatives and the High Council of State under a 2015 agreement that was intended to establish a short transitional period that would ultimately resolve the conflict.
On Monday, UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily cited that 2015 agreement to say he was setting up a steering committee of major Libyan figures to adopt a time-bound road map to elections.
“The political process remains protracted and falls short of the aspirations of Libyans, who seek to elect their leaders and reinvigorate their political institutions,” said Bathily last week.
“In short, Libyans are impatient,” he stressed, noting that they are widely questioning the will and desire of political actors to hold inclusive and transparent elections in 2023, as planned.
