While Libyan analysts and politicians welcomed the step, some of them considered it “too late”, and it was necessary to be firm in supporting the holding of the elections as scheduled, which was scheduled for December 24 last.
According to “Decode 39” magazine, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio had two phone conversations with Washington and Paris, during which he discussed with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian the electoral process and the political transition in Libya.
The two ministers confirmed the support of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Libya, Stephanie Williams, and his conversation with his American counterpart, Anthony Blinken, carried the same content.
For its part, the US State Department said that the two sides discussed the ongoing Libyan efforts to organize the elections without further delay.
“Decode 39” magazine reported that Di Maio believes that there are now no encouraging signs inside Libya, especially after the head of the Libyan High Elections Commission, Imad al-Sayeh, spoke before the House of Representatives in Tobruk, on Monday, regarding the legal, political and security obstacles that forced the commission to postpone the elections.
Accordingly, the Italian minister considers the deadline announced by the Commission, January 24, to be impractical.
3 reasons
In the parliamentary session, Al-Sayeh identified 3 reasons why the commission had to announce the difficulty of holding the elections on time.
The first reason is the “conflicting judicial rulings” regarding some candidates, and their large numbers that are not commensurate with the period granted to the Commission to ensure that their records are safe from fraud.
The second reason is the threats received by the commission from militias in western Libya, including the threat to storm the commission’s headquarters if the elections take place with a list of candidates that these militias do not accept, and questioning the capabilities and integrity of the commission, with the silence of state institutions, including the Presidential Council, the government and parliament, in the face of these threats.
The third reason arising from the foregoing is the Commission’s doubts about the ability of the Ministry of Interior to secure the electoral process in these circumstances.
“move late”
A member of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (which includes 75 personalities from all Libyan parties and contributed to setting the road map for the elections) Abu Bakr Issa Al-Obeidi, expressed the forum’s welcome for any effort or meetings that seek to bring views closer and achieve the primary goal of reaching the elections.
Al-Obaidi explained that the main goal and the only and most important gain in the road map is the elections, which are the solution to all of Libya’s problems, adding that the Libyans were shocked by not holding the presidential and parliamentary elections on time.
In the estimation of the Libyan political analyst Suleiman Al-Baroni, holding joint talks between the United States, France and Italy is a “correct choice.” Because it is one of the most influential countries in the file of Libya.
Speaking to “Sky News Arabia”, he considered at the same time that this move “may be a bit late”, due to the fact that “if the international forces wanted to hold elections in December, they would have done it, but they showed recklessness that pushed us back again” and we may go for a while. Another long transition.
Al-Baroni warned that if January passes without holding elections, “we may enter into a political dilemma, which may extend to be military as well, and thus the ceasefire collapses, and therefore there is a need to take serious steps to ensure the return of the political process to its correct path.”
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