Disagreements between Aguila Saleh and al-Mishri delay Libyan elections
Millions of Libyans hope that 2023 will see a political breakthrough to resolve the years-long crisis in Libya and reach the moment when presidential and parliamentary elections are held in accordance with the political agreement reached last year.
Disagreements and mistrust
For his part, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, and the President of the High Council of State, Khaled Al-Mishri, accused the conclusion of an agreement he described as “suspicious” with the aim of disrupting the elections. The division between the two men, Aguila Saleh and Khaled Al-Mishri, expressed the crisis of mistrust that Libya is suffering from, and to initiate the procedures of the electoral process, the constitutional basis on which the elections are held must be met. The agreement between Aguila Saleh and Khaled Al-Mishri, as decided in the 2015 Libyan Political Agreement (Skhirat Agreement), which granted legitimacy to the extension of the work of the House of Parliament and created the High Council of State as an alternative to the National Assembly of Assembly.
Since the signing of the Skhirat Agreement, the political parties have not succeeded in breaking the impasse despite numerous regional and international initiatives and mediation. The situation became worse after the Libyan Army’s attack on the capital Tripoli in 2019 and the assistance of the Government of National Accord-at the time-Turkey, which intervened militarily through mercenaries and its army to prevent the Libyan Army from liberating Tripoli from the control of the militias. Since then, there have been many alliances and the emergence of new political forces.
Complex scene
Mahmoud Mohammed, a Libyan political analyst, said the political scene is complicated by the fact that the two men who are charged with ending successive transitions have no interest in that, a vision that is shared by a large section of Libyans in different countries. He added that the elections are not an end in themselves; It is a means to achieve the goal of restoring the State, its institutions and its sovereignty.
He added: Even if the presidents of both houses agree, this is not a sufficient guarantee to move to the election step, especially after the tension in relations between Al-Mishri and Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, stressing that the coming out of a constitutional base will to some extent make regional and international powers rally around it, especially that this support will reduce the Turkish influence and obstacles for the bears to stay in power.
