Libya sees multiple pathways to a single solution of general elections (News analysis by Youssef Ba, PANA correspondent)

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Suddenly, the Libyan political space is being filled with initiatives to hold elections and end the North African country's political crisis.

At no time since the postponement of the 24 December presidential election has there been such bold attempts by various groups to demand elections and shut the door to interim administrations.

On Sunday alone, two initiatives were announced by the Prime Minister of the internationally-recognised Government of National Unity (GNU), Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba and a group of parliamentary candidates.

Mr. Al-Dbaiba said that he had launched consultations for the formation of a National Committee to draft an electoral law and also a constitutional basis on which general elections will be held.

For the parliamentary candidates, they have forwarded to the Chairman of the Libyan presidential council, Mohamed Al-Manfi, an initiative based on holding of general elections as soon as possible to break the political deadlock.

Mr. Al-Manfi told them that "the Presidential Council will spare no effort to support all measures aimed at achieving stability through free, fair and transparent elections, according to an agreed constitutional basis, and whose results will be accepted by all".

Already, the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General, Stephanie Williams, proposed in early March an initiative focused on the formation of a 12-member joint committee with equal representation of the Parliament and the High Council of State to develop, within two weeks, a constitutional basis for holding elections as soon as possible.

While the High Council has accepted the proposal and elected its representatives, Parliament has virtually rejected it.

And that is not all. A new initiative has been presented to Ms. Williams by a number of candidates for the presidential election in the event that consensus between the Parliament and the High State Council fails.

Presented during a meeting on Saturday via video conferencing, the initiative consists of handing over the affairs to the Presidential Council to act by decree to achieve free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections.

Mrs. Williams explained to the 15 Libyan presidential candidates that she is waiting until the end of March, at the latest, for the names of the representatives of the Parliament, otherwise there will be procedures and firmer steps with all Libyan parties until a solution to the crisis is found.

The Libyan Presidential Council, which supports the initiative of the UN Secretary General's Special Adviser, is believed to intend to act in the event of a deadlock between the two legislative bodies, to appoint a team of legal experts to draft a constitutional basis for the elections to be adopted by decree for the polls.

Since the failure of the elections on 24 December, the country has been plunged into a deep crisis that has torpedoed the achievements of almost two years of efforts, talks and mediation by the United Nations, supported by the international community within the framework of the Berlin I and II Conferences.

The consensus that was hard won in February 2021 in Geneva with the selection of an Interim Executive Authority -- the Presidential Council and a Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity based on the roadmap of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum -- was for general elections at the end of 24 December last year.

Forgetting the need for consensus for a country in a post-conflict phase, Parliament, sitting in the east, unilaterally adopted electoral laws for separate presidential and legislative elections, contrary to the roadmap of the Political Dialogue Forum that stipulated their simultaneity.

This situation has fuelled controversy and created the rejection of a large section of Libyans, accusing the legislative body of having tailored these laws to suit certain personalities. They were referring to the head of the Libyan National Army (LNA) based in the east, Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

Faced with these political conditions, and the judicial appeals against a number of candidates, some of whom are causing rifts between Libyans, such as Seif Al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in addition to the insecurity, the High Electoral Commission was forced to postpone the elections. Its official reason was "a state of force majeure".

Instead of learning from this failure, the Libyan Parliament persisted in its approach, seeking to conclude a deal between the Speaker of Parliament, Aguila Saleh and the chairman of the High State Council, Khaled Al-Mechri, agreeing on a process to adopt an amendment to the Constitutional Declaration.

They agreed to form a committee to be composed of both institutions including experts to revise the draft Constitution and hold elections within a 14-month time-frame.

Declaring that the mandate of the GNU, for which it had refused to approve its budget for 2021, had ended on 24 December, the Parliament appointed a new Prime Minister, Fathi Bachagha.

In response to the outcry over this process because of Libyans' aspirations for elections, the High State Council reneged on this agreement by voting against the constitutional amendment and the formation of a new government.

It proposed the formation of a joint committee with the parliament to draft a constitutional basis on which general elections would be held as soon as possible.

This situation has thrown Libya into further turmoil with the existence of two governments: that of Mr. Al-Dbaiba and the other by Mr. Bachagha.

The UNSecurity Council at its last briefing session on Libya emphasised the dangers of the presence of "two parallel governments" with its corollary of friction between the country's components and the divisions of the state institutions.

They were unanimous in their support for the initiative of the UN Secretary General's adviser as a solution to get the country out of the crisis.

These member countries of the Security Council insisted on the organisation of presidential and legislative elections as the only guarantee of a way out of the crisis of legitimacy that has persisted in Libya, rejecting the transitional stages as a factor in prolonging the crisis.

But in the face of the multiplicity of these initiatives, even if they all point towards elections, there are risks of muddying the waters and prolonging the crisis.

-0- PANA BY/IS/BBA/MA 20March2022