Tunisia will host Libyan committee negotiations in the coming days

Tripoli, 21 Mar The head of the United Nations support mission in Libya, Stephanie Williams, revealed that the joint committee made up of members of the Chamber of Deputies (east) and the Supreme Council of the State (west) will meet in the coming days in Tunis to agree on the constitutional basis for holding elections as soon as possible. During her participation this Sunday evening in the popular social network Clubhouse, the person in charge assured that the President of the Assembly, Aquila Salah, promised to send in the next two days the list of members selected by her chamber and who will participate in this initiative, which was scheduled to begin on March 15. to reach an agreement before April. This meeting, which seeks to bring positions between the two opposing authorities in the east and west of the country, was in the air since last Monday the Supreme Council - which plays the role of the Senate - elected the twelve representatives and in the face of the silence of Parliament that had not spoken about their participation. For his part, the head of the Government of National Unity (GNU), Abdel Hamid Dbeibah, in power since February 2021, announced this Sunday the formation of a national committee to draft electoral laws and the constitutional basis that will govern the consultation. “We have parliamentary and presidential elections ahead of us. This dream of the Libyans can now come true. The conspiracy to extend the mandates of the current legislative bodies will not be successful. I have contacted international parties and they all agreed that the solution lies in holding elections,” Dbeibah said during a meeting with his cabinet. Fathi Bashagha, a powerful former Minister of the Interior appointed by Parliament (eastern) on 10 February to lead a new phase of transition, says he will peacefully take power in Tripoli despite the fact that the acting Executive refuses to give up office without going through the polls next June. The transition process faces a new schism in the legislative branch, as happened in 2014 with the UN-supported Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli (west); and another one based in the city of Tobruk (east), under the tutelage of Marshal Khalifa Hafter, the country's strongman. After the Electoral Commission postponed the presidential elections on 24 December only 48 hours after the count, Parliament considers that Debeibah's mandate expired after failing to achieve its task: to unify national bodies, maintain the ceasefire and hold elections. Libya is a failed state, a victim of chaos and civil war, since in 2011 NATO contributed to the victory of the various rebel groups against the despot Muammar al-Qaddafi, in power for 42 years. CHIEF mak-nrm/jgb