Morocco hosts a meeting of the Libyan 6+6 Committee to vote on contentious issues
The Libyan “6+6” Committee, which is responsible for preparing electoral laws, will hold meetings in Morocco early next week to vote on controversial articles, foremost among them the law of candidacy for the presidency, which has not been discussed so far and is the core of the dispute between the House of Representatives and the Supreme Council of the State, in order to get rid of the pressures it faces from internal and external parties. At the same time, there is talk about the continuation of “force majeure” which prevented the holding of the previous elections.
The committee was to meet in Libya, but decided to move it to Morocco, to vote on the material without pressure from local parties, to ensure faster consensus on laws pertaining to parliamentary, shura, and presidential elections.
“The committee will vote on the points of disagreement during the upcoming meeting in Morocco,” said Libyan MP Ezzedine Guerrab, who is also a member of the 6+6 electoral law drafting committee.
“Previous meetings of the committee discussed the technical aspects with the electoral commission, the legal aspects with the prosecutor general, especially those who have issues with candidates,” he told Sputnik.
“The law on the presidential candidacy has not yet been officially discussed, as the committee is discussing and voting on controversial issues during meetings in Morocco, which are scheduled to start next Monday,” he explained.
“The upcoming meetings in Morocco will take several days to discuss the controversial articles and then vote on the controversial articles,” he said.
“During the upcoming meeting in Morocco, the committee will vote on all articles on which the committee did not reach consensus (approving),” Guerrab said. “It will also present the contentious points regarding the conditions for running for the presidency in the previous draft law.”
“What the committee agrees on in accordance with the 13th amendment to the Constitutional Declaration is referred to the IHEC after it is approved by parliament, or else the IHEC will refer it directly to the IHEC,” he said.
The 6+6 committee is divided equally between the House of Representatives and the Supreme Council of State. The committee was formed after the UN envoy threatened to pull the rug out from both chambers for their failure over the past months to reach an agreement on a number of controversial items regarding candidacies for members of the military and for dual nationals.
This committee is the last chance for the House of Representatives and the Supreme Council of the State to demonstrate their seriousness to Libyans and the international community to move forward with the electoral process, before matters turn out to the head of the UN mission in Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily.
There is talk in Libya of the failure of the committee formed by the two chambers to reach any consensus, and that the UN envoy has the mantra to disentangle the two chambers through the mechanism of forming the high-level committee, which will take the decision from both chambers and implement electoral laws, and block the way for them to stay in the scene.
In the past few days, Bathily has intensified his contacts with the Libyan political elite. He met with the President of the Presidential Council, Mohamed Al-Manfi, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh. He also met with the President of the High Council of State, Khalid al-Mishri, and the Head of the Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, and called on them to expedite the work of the 6+6 Commission and support it in preparing the legislative framework for comprehensive elections.
The 6+6 committee made no progress, although its formation took place more than a month and a half ago, following pressure from the UN mission, which asked the two chambers not to exceed their work on the electoral laws by mid-June at the latest.
The committee is under pressure from several parties, especially the State Council, the de facto authority and affiliated militias in western Libya, obstructed members of the State Council who do not approve the 13th constitutional amendment, and major countries with powerful forces on the ground who do not want presidential elections, said Gabriel Ouhida, a member of the House of Representatives.
Such pressure would impede the commission’s work and prevent it from agreeing on the necessary laws for the upcoming general elections, returning Libya to square one of the crisis.
Ali al-Saoul, a member of the Libyan House of Representatives, said in a press statement that the current situation does not point to the possibility of holding elections, especially since the “force majeure” that prevented the previous elections has been present so far.
The lack of agreement between the House of Representatives and the Supreme Council of State on the conditions to run for president was one of the main reasons that constituted “force majeure” that prevented the holding of the general elections on 24 December 2021.
“The electoral laws will be referred from the committee formed once they are approved by parliament to issue the law,” al-Saoul said. “They will not be referred directly to the High Commission.”
“The committee’s findings must first be presented to the parliament for approval and issuance of laws, then referred to the commission, given that the committee is part of the legislative council and is not independent,” he said.
According to the amendment, a 12-member committee of six members from the Council of Representatives and their representatives from the State Council will be formed to agree by a two-thirds majority of each council to prepare the referendum and election laws. In the event of disagreement on controversial points, the committee will establish a mechanism for taking a decision on them that is final and binding, and will be referred to the House of Representatives for approval and issuance of laws as it approves them without amendment.
According to members of parliament, the recent rapprochement between the House of Representatives and the State Council paves the way for the early adoption of electoral laws, especially after more than 90% of the laws have been approved.
