Yesterday, Monday, the Libyan Presidential Council renewed its call to the House of Representatives and the Supreme Council of State to assume their responsibilities and achieve consensus to hold elections and end the political crisis in the country.
In a statement, the Libyan Presidential Council said that it calls on the House of Representatives and the Supreme Council of the State to "assume their responsibilities in order to unify efforts and overcome difficulties in front of national consensus to hold parliamentary and presidential elections as soon as possible."
The Libyan Presidential Council announced that it had been informed of the inability of the High Council of State to participate in the meeting, which was called for alongside the House of Representatives in the city of Ghadames, without explaining the reasons for that, despite welcoming the invitation, according to the expression of the statement.
The statement added that the Presidential Council built its approach represented in holding the Ghadames meeting with the aim of creating a suitable atmosphere for taking steps leading to general elections, according to a consensual constitutional rule and a consensual election law.
This statement came hours after the head of the State Council, Khaled Al-Mashri, refused the Presidential Council's invitation to him to meet with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, in the city of Ghadames on January 11.
Yesterday, the High Council of State voted in favor of resuming dialogue with the House of Representatives, after the suspension of communication between the two sides that lasted for more than 3 weeks.
A member of the council told Anadolu Agency that the Supreme Council also voted to reject the Presidential Council's invitation to Al-Mashri to meet with Saleh in the city of Ghadames.
Yesterday, the head of the unity government, Abd al-Hamid al-Dabaiba, spoke of a suspicious agreement between al-Mashri and Saleh in order to share power and disrupt the holding of elections, as he put it.
Dabaiba also accused Al-Mishri and Saleh of continuing to frustrate the Libyan people by ignoring the need for "free and fair" elections and said they were always busy looking for new ways to extend themselves or share power.
During the cabinet meeting in Tripoli, Al-Dabaiba said in his speech that 2023 will be the year of unity of institutions and holding elections.
Since March 2022, a government headed by Fathi Bashagha, assigned by the House of Representatives in Tobruk (east), has been struggling for power with the internationally recognized government of Dabaiba, which refuses to hand over power except to a government assigned to it by a new elected parliament.