Less than a week separates us from the date, initially planned for the holding of the Libyan presidential election, and this lapse of time is insufficient for the organization of the electoral campaigns of about 80 candidates, which confirms that the postponement the December 24 poll has now become an inescapable fait accompli.
Despite the expiration of the official deadlines for lodging appeals, the current December 7, date which should correspond to the start of the electoral campaign to end on the 23 of the same month, that is to say, the day before the day of the vote, it does not remain. Unless the High Electoral Commission has not yet announced the final list of candidates until now.
– Pressure to obstruct the election
Supporters of Aguila Salah, former Speaker of Parliament, and retired General Khalifa Haftar were shocked at the ability of the current Head of the Union government, Abdelhamid Dbeibeh, and Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of the former Libyan Guide, to overcome the phase of appeals filed with the Courts of First Instance and Courts of Appeal, and to reach the starting line of the presidential race.
It is undeniable that the candidacies of Dbeibeh and Seif al-Islam will greatly reduce the chances of Aguila and Haftar of winning the election, despite the drafting of the law relating to this tailor-made ballot to adapt them to desiderata of the two strongmen from the east of the country, with the aim of depriving Dbeibeh, in particular, of taking part in it. However, their plan has so far failed.
Thus, the Presidency of Parliament and the deputies loyal to Aguila and Haftar mobilized behind the scenes and during “extra-time” to exert pressure on the Electoral Commission, with the aim of postponing the announcement of the list. final candidates.
The Electoral Commission complied with this pressure and proceeded to the publication of an equivocal press release, in which it is implicitly a question of postponing the elections, even of the re-examination of certain names which have succeeded in overcoming the ultimate pitfall of the appeals filed with of the Courts of Appeal.
In the press release issued on December 11, the Commission indicated that it “will adopt certain legal procedures, in coordination with the Superior Council of the Judiciary, and others of a legal nature, by making contact with the commission set up. by the Chamber of Deputies, before moving forward on the path to the proclamation of the final list of candidates ”.
According to Saad al-Akr, close to Aguila Salah, the president of the Electoral Commission, Imed Essayeh, revealed, during his meeting with the vice-president of the Parliament A’hmid Houma, to have received threats as well as the request of ‘addition of a new appeal at the level of Parliament (third level of appeal) that the candidates will have to overcome.
This means that Parliament could resort to amending the electoral law, which will create a third level of appeal instead of the current dual jurisdiction (first instance and appeal).
– Pressures on justice
The presidency of the parliament and a group of deputies who are loyal to him not only summoned the president of the Electoral Commission but they exerted pressure on the Superior Council of the Magistracy, to demand the restructuring of this institution.
The Presidency of Parliament pulled a law from the drawer, which no one had heard of for only a few days.
She indicated that this is the amendment to the law, dating from September 20, 2019, when Tripoli was facing a bloodthirsty attack, the most violent, launched by the militias of Haftar, and which were supported by mercenaries. foreigners.
At that time, the majority of the deputies had given up their support brought to Aguila Salah and decided to set up a “parallel Council” in Tripoli
The “controversial” law refers to the structure of the Superior Council of the Magistracy by amending the head and the composition of the Board. By virtue of this amendment, the chairmanship of the Council falls to the Director of the Department of Judicial Inspection, with the Attorney General as successor.
The legislation, currently in force, states that the president of the High Court is the president of the High Judicial Council, while the Director of the Department of Judicial Inspection is his deputy.
What should be remembered is that the Presidency of Parliament is working, through this “legislation”, to bring down the President of the High Court, Mohammed Hafi, from the presidency of the Supreme Judicial Council, after the latter authorized the candidacy of Dbeibeh and Seif al-Islam.
The most astonishing thing is that the president of the interim Parliament, Fawzi Nouiri, denied being aware of the promulgation of such a text, intended to restructure the Superior Council of the Magistracy.
In a statement made to the “Eye of Libya” website, Hafi stressed that he “has not officially received a decision from the Chamber of Deputies to notify the restructuring of the Supreme Judicial Council”.
Thus, it is a group of deputies close to Haftar, whose number did not exceed during the first meeting the 29 (out of a total of 170), which manages the operation aimed at hampering the progress of the election.
To avoid not reaching the quorum required to give legality to their decision, these deputies resorted to the formation of a commission to contact the Electoral Commission and the Judicial Council.
Their goal is to exert pressure on these two bodies to postpone the election, until the identification of a legal formula to exclude Gaddafi and Dbeibeh from the presidential race and to pave the way for Haftar to win the election.
Although the court decisions are final verdicts after the appeals filed by a number of candidates to the Courts of the first instance and then to the Courts of Appeal, the fact remains that the attempt of the deputies loyal to Haftar to file the president of the Supreme Judicial Council, a few days before the December 24 election was held, was seen by several parties as an attempt to politicize justice.
Among these parties is the special advisor to the UN Secretary-General in charge of Libya, Stéphanie Williams, who has issued a warning to Haftar’s militias and to deputies who threaten judges and judicial institutions.
Williams, during his meeting with the president of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, at the seat of the Superior Court in Tripoli, indicated that “the United Nations will not tolerate any intimidation or aggression of judges and public justice services in the country”.
Khaled Mechri, president of the High Council of State (legislative consultative), for his part, underlined that the rut facing the electoral process is caused by “the legislation instituted by the presidency of the Parliament and the High Council of the judiciary, which issued motions contrary to the laws governing the action of the Council”.
The ambiguity surrounding the fate of the December 24 elections puts Libyans in the grip of several scenarios.
The first is to postpone the date of the elections by several days while publishing the list of candidates in accordance with the final judgments handed down by the courts.
The second scenario consists of postponing, for two or three months, the ballot to again amend the electoral law and institute the third degree of jurisdiction, as a prelude to the disqualification of Gaddafi and Dbeibeh.
The third scenario, the worst for that matter, consists of a collapse of the electoral process and the fall of the Union government on December 24, against the backdrop, among other things, of threats hammered out by several parties, which would result in the return of the Union government. country back to square one.
