Libya vote process faces commission test

Libya’s UN backed election process has moved into a new procedural phase after the 4+4 committee adopted a mechanism to agree on a candidate to head the High National Elections Commission, as reported by The Libya Observer and agencies on July 14th.

The mechanism was adopted during the committee’s sixth meeting at UNSMIL’s office in Tunis, the mission said the step followed delays in implementing an earlier agreed process for selecting the head of HNEC but it did not provide further details on how the new mechanism will work.

Libya’s election problem is not only the absence of voting laws but it is also the lack of trusted institutions capable of organising a national vote across a country still divided between rival political and security structures.

HNEC is central to that challenge, a reconstituted and accepted election commission would be responsible for preparing and supervising any presidential and parliamentary elections as without consensus over its leadership, the wider electoral process risks remaining vulnerable to political challenge before it even reaches voters.

The 4+4 committee is tasked with addressing the first two stages of the UN facilitated political track. According to UNSMIL, participants also continued drafting the final agreement based on understandings reached in previous sessions over the legal framework for presidential and parliamentary elections.

Most agreed points have now been included in the draft agreement, while another meeting is expected in the first week of August to complete the committee’s remaining work.

The process builds on earlier discussions in Rome, where participants reached an agreement in principle on restructuring HNEC’s board, at that stage the Attorney General was expected to nominate a judicial figure known for competence, integrity and impartiality to serve as chair, while representatives from the House of Representatives and High Council of State were named for the board.

The new mechanism may help overcome one institutional obstacle, yet Libya’s political crisis has repeatedly shown that technical consensus can collapse when it meets questions of authority, trust and implementation.

The Libya Observer plus agencies, maghrebi.org