Libya’s rival factions agree two-year path to national elections

TRIPOLI – Libya’s rival political factions signed a draft agreement on Sunday to pave the way for presidential and parliamentary elections within two years, including plans to restructure the country’s election commission and review disputed electoral laws.

The agreement, signed at the headquarters of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, UNSMIL, in Tripoli, represents the latest attempt to break a political deadlock that has kept the country divided between rival administrations and delayed national elections since 2021.

The deal was reached through the 4+4 Small Dialogue Committee, which brings together representatives of Libya’s main political and military institutions. The group has been holding UN-sponsored talks since April in an effort to advance a UN roadmap for elections, unify executive authority and address disputes that have repeatedly derailed the political process.

Walid Al-Lafi, head of the Government of National Unity delegation to the committee, and Al-Shaibani Abu Hamoud, who heads the delegation of the General Command of the Libyan National Army in eastern Libya, read out the agreement in the presence of UN envoy Hanna Tetteh.

The agreement sets a timetable of no more than 24 months for presidential and parliamentary elections to be held under a single executive authority and unified national institutions.

It also calls for the restructuring of the board of the High National Elections Commission and names Dhaou Ibrahim Attia as chairman and Sana al-Lishani as his deputy.

One of the most contentious issues addressed by the agreement is eligibility to stand for president. It allows dual nationals to run, provided the eventual winner renounces any non-Libyan nationality before taking the constitutional oath. It also proposes a legal mechanism allowing the electoral process to be repeated if the winning candidate cannot meet that requirement.

Military personnel would also be permitted to participate in presidential elections both as candidates and voters. Presidential candidates would be required to obtain 20,000 endorsements from registered voters across Libya.

The committee also agreed to leave questions surrounding the country’s permanent constitution to the parliament elected under the new process, authorising it to address issues related to the constitution, including its adoption.

In an effort to reinforce national unity, the agreement provides for sessions of the elected House of Representatives and the executive authority to rotate between Tripoli, Benghazi and Sabha, representing Libya’s western, eastern and southern regions.

UN envoy Tetteh described the agreement as “another important milestone in Libya’s journey toward stability and national unity.”

She said it supported “our collective efforts” to create the conditions for national elections and the unification of Libya’s institutions.

Tetteh said the agreement was the product of discussions that began in Rome on April 29 and continued through seven rounds of talks at the UN mission’s headquarters in Tunisia.

The European Union and the diplomatic missions of EU member states in Libya also welcomed the agreement, describing it as “a meaningful milestone towards unifying the institutions and creating the conditions for credible national elections”.

They praised the Libyan participants for their “constructive approach, political responsibility and readiness to find common ground in the national interest”.

The EU missions called on the House of Representatives and High Council of State to “engage positively” with the committee’s outcome and take the necessary steps to implement it “without delay”.

The agreement still faces the challenge of securing approval from Libya’s two rival legislative bodies. Under its terms, if the House of Representatives and High Council of State fail to approve it within a month, the parties will seek to adopt it nationally as a constitutional document through broader national mechanisms and secure backing from the UN Security Council.

The committee had initialled the draft final agreement on elections and the unification of executive authority on August 20, paving the way for Sunday’s formal signing.

Libya has remained divided since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime leader Muammar Gadhafi, with the country splitting between rival eastern and western factions in 2014. A 2020 ceasefire largely halted major fighting, but successive transitional arrangements have failed to produce lasting political unity.

The current divide centres on the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, led by Abdulhamid Dbeibah, which governs western Libya, and an eastern-based administration headed by Osama Hammad, appointed by the House of Representatives in 2022 and backed by forces under military commander Khalifa Haftar.

A previous attempt to resolve the crisis through elections collapsed in December 2021 after disputes over candidate eligibility and the legal framework forced the vote to be postponed indefinitely.

The latest agreement is intended to address some of those disputes while creating a clearer route towards a vote that many Libyans hope will end years of transitional government and political and armed conflict.

But the agreement’s success will depend on whether Libya’s competing institutions accept its provisions and whether the political forces that have benefited from the prolonged transitional arrangements are prepared to accept the outcome of a nationwide vote.