Libyan head of representative delegation to the House of Representatives Jalal Salah Abd Assalam (L), Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita and Libyan head of the representative delegation of the Supreme Council of the State Omar Mohamed Aboulifa (R), attend a meeting of the joint committee of the Libyan house of representatives, early on June 7 , 2023 in Bouznika. AFP
In a statement posted by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, Egypt encouraged the HoR and the HCS to continue their efforts to hold the Libyan presidential and parliamentary elections in parallel as soon as possible.
The ministry called for the HoR and the HCS to continue their role assigned to them under the Skhirat Agreement in this regard in order to meet the aspirations of the brotherly Libyan people.
Earlier this week, the envoys of the rival Libyan factions in the committee announced that they had reached agreements on electoral laws governing the long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections after around two weeks of talks in Morocco’s Bouznika city.
The agreements will be signed "in the coming days" by HoR Speaker Aguila Saleh and Chair of the High Council of State (HCS) Khaled Al-Mishri, said Morocco's Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita.
In its Friday statement, the Egyptian foreign ministry called for all Libyan parties to back the efforts of the 6+6 Joint Committee to restore Libya’s stability and achieve its people’s aspirations.
This comes in line with “the principle of the Libyan ownership of the solution [of the crisis] and given that [those parties’] mandate derives from legitimate Libyan institutions,” the ministry said.
Egypt also praised Morocco for hosting the last round of the committee.
The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) also hailed the committee’s efforts in a Wednesday statement, calling on all Libyan actors to engage to create a “safer and more conductive environment” for holding elections in 2023.
The UNSMIL also urged all players to refrain from “delay tactics aimed at prolonging the stalemate, which has caused so much suffering for the people of Libya.”
The 6+6 Committee was formed in March, with the task of formulating legislation to regulate elections in the country.
Egypt has been highlighting the necessity of holding elections in Libya as soon as possible in order to restore stability in its western neighbor, ever since the elections scheduled to be held late in 2021 under a UN-led agreement failed to materialise.
Libyan elections have been delayed since then over persistent disputes between parties, including on the framework for holding elections.
In a meeting in Cairo in January, Saleh of the HoS and the HCS’s Al-Mishri agreed on drawing a roadmap for holding the long-awaited elections.
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