Members of the High Council of State, the House of Representatives and the Justice and Construction Party in Libya announced their rejection of the outcomes of the "6 + 6" committee, which finished drafting laws to organize the upcoming elections in the country.
The joint committee between the House of Representatives and the state voted – on Saturday – in its meeting in the Moroccan city of Bouznika, unanimously on the laws under which parliamentary elections (House of Representatives and Senate) and presidential elections will be held.
The 54 members of the State Council (out of the total 200 members of the Council) said, "We followed with concern, apprehension and condemnation the meetings of the so-called 6+6 committee, and the results that were broadcast through the media as a way out of these meetings are devoid of constitutional basis in terms of origin, and necessarily non-existent."
The members accused the presidencies of the House of Representatives and the State Council of tampering with and jumping on the constitutional declaration by forming the committee, and assigning constitutional tasks and competencies to it that are the inherent competence of all members of the two houses.
61 members of the House of Representatives (out of 200 is the total number of members) also accused the "6 + 6" committee of exceeding its work, deviating from its specific role by agreeing on the controversial points related to the election of the president, and holding the members of the Presidency of the House of Representatives responsible for signing or approving the committee's outputs without reference to the legislative institution.
Although the deputies themselves praised the work of the committee and the agreements it reached, they denounced at the same time the statements of the members of the committee regarding the increase in the number of members of the next House of Representatives, and the deputies called on the committee not to interfere in the parliamentary seats by increasing or decreasing them and leaving them to the next constitution.
Political party
The Justice and Construction Party, Libya's largest Islamist party, said in a statement on Sunday that it rejects the outputs of the "6 + 6" committee, as a result of losing the national consensus emanating from the thirteenth constitutional amendment constitutionally contested before the judiciary.
The party said that the committee did not address the criteria for candidacy for the presidential elections, which is the basis of the dispute between the Libyan parties, and the problem was transferred to the second round of elections, which further complicates the scene that may reach an armed conflict.
The 6+6 committee, consisting of 6 members from the House of Representatives and a representative from the State Council (parliamentary advisory), was formed by the thirteenth amendment to the Constitutional Declaration (an interim constitution drawn up after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011).
According to the agreement of the two chambers, the committee was tasked with preparing consensual electoral laws through which elections will be held to resolve a crisis of power struggle between a government appointed by the House of Representatives in early 2022, and the Government of National Unity headed by Abdul Hamid Dabaiba, who refuses to hand over except to a government that comes through a new elected parliament.