Libya Prepares Constitutional Basis Ahead Of December Elections

Libya is on the road of democratic reconstruction as a draft towards upcoming elections is prepared for its constitutional basis. Elections are to held in December of this year. The basis has already received approval from the Libyan High Council of State (HCS) that was prepared by Elections Law Committee of the HCS and it contained 63 articles.

According to the HCS, legislative authority should be under an Umma Council (House of Representatives and Senate) and members should be no less than 40 years of age. Membership should come from Libyan Muslim cadres and have no foreign citizenship. Some more strict articles suggest neither the PM or the President should be married to a non-Libyan citizen and should hold no criminal record.

The membership of the House of Representatives will be four years starting from the first session. 90 days before the end of term, election of new members should start. No extended terms are allowed. Further and a landmark article state that no military officers (even if they resigned less than two years ago) would be allowed to run for president.

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This is expected to bring about controversy between the HCS and House of Representatives as the article won’t allow Haftar to run. Eager to reach a consensus with the House of Representatives (parliament) on election laws, the Council Head Khalid al-Mishri along with the Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Buccino and special envoy Nicola Orlando met at Tripoli recently, to firm up the matter.

Al-Mishri said the council is keen on reaching a consensus with the House of Representatives (parliament) on election laws. Since the weekend, almost 10,000 Libyans living abroad have registered to caste their vote, while the huge potential of the rest of the Libyan population to register still remains open till December 24, when the elections are slated. The commission said 2,856,624 Libyans are eligible to cast a ballot. Since the ceasefire efforts were made, there has been peace and restoration of some democratic governance. In order to maintain this status quo, elections are imperative.