Abdullah Al-Lafi, Vice-President of the Libyan Presidential Council, stressed the need to hold the upcoming elections in the country according to a legal and constitutional framework that guarantees their success and the acceptance of their results by all political parties, at a time when differences emerged in the government.

During his meeting in Tripoli, the coordinator of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, Rizdon Zeninga, Al-Lafi said that the coming period requires a comprehensive vision and decisions to ensure that the elections are held on time.

In turn, the UN mission stressed the importance of holding the elections on time by consensus of all parties, praising the role of the Presidential Council in supporting the electoral process.

Under the auspices of the United Nations, Libya witnessed a political breakthrough months ago. On March 16, an elected transitional authority, comprising a unity government and a presidential council, assumed its duties to lead the country to parliamentary and presidential elections on December 24.


Powers and controversies

But weeks ago, disagreements erupted over the powers and election laws between the House of Representatives on the one hand, and the Supreme Council of State (parliamentary-advisory), the unity government and the Presidential Council on the other.

The Libyan House of Representatives, in its session in the city of Tobruk, approved the parliamentary elections law scheduled for next December 24, without consultation or agreement with the Supreme Council of State, and the law adopts individual representation without the presence of parties in it, contrary to the wording of the draft law presented by the Supreme Council of State. The number of constituencies depends.

The adoption of the legislative elections law comes less than a month after the adoption of the controversial presidential election law, which was approved by Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh without putting it to a vote, which sparked a wave of resentment among a large number of political parties.

The Libyan House of Representatives also approved the holding of parliamentary elections a month after the presidential elections scheduled for next December 24, which was rejected by the Supreme Council of State, blaming Parliament for any delay.

Divide and warn

In a context related to political tension, Hussein Al-Qatrani, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Libyan government, Abdel Hamid Dabaiba, warned the latter of what he described as the beginning of a new government division if the head of government changes the board of directors of the Libyan Telecom Holding Company.

Al-Qatrani accused the prime minister of unilaterally issuing decisions, marginalizing his deputies, and withdrawing the powers of ministers.

Part of a previous search for bodies in mass graves (Al-Jazeera)

Mass graves

Yesterday, Saturday, members of the General Authority for the Search and Identification of Missing Persons in Libya were able to retrieve 35 unidentified bodies from 7 sites in the "public garbage dump in the city of Tarhuna."

Statistics issued by the authority showed the implementation of 245 test fields at the Tarhuna public landfill site, and the discovery of 5 mass graves and two individual graves.

On the fourth of this October, the head of the fact-finding mission in Libya, Mohamed Aujar, said that "the mission confirms the collection of evidence of mass massacres of civilians in Tarhuna from 2016 to 2020".