The 6+6 committee established by Libya’s House of Representatives and High Council of State will reconvene in Türkiye to advance the country’s electoral process.
The decision was reached during a meeting in Ankara between Aguila Saleh, president of Libya’s House of Representatives, and Mohamed Takala, president of Libya’s High Council of State. According to a joint statement by the two institutions, the meeting will be held in Türkiye so the committee can continue its work.
Saleh and Takala also agreed on the need to strengthen national reconciliation in Libya, support political and institutional stability, and maintain coordination between the two councils. They said the political process should proceed in line with the constitutional declaration, the legal framework and the political agreement governing the work of the two councils.
Work on election laws to continue
The 6+6 committee was established after talks in Bouznika, Morocco, on June 6, 2023, to draft election laws. Some of the regulations prepared by the committee faced objections from Libyan parties, and the process of enacting them did not advance.
Türkiye has said it is ready to host the committee. The meeting in Türkiye is expected to help complete work on the election laws and clear the way for the long-awaited electoral process.
Institutional division in Libya on the agenda
The Ankara meeting also addressed the need to unify Libya’s sovereign institutions and executive authority. Saleh and Takala said ending the institutional division would strengthen the unity of state institutions and help establish a unified executive authority ahead of elections.
Takala presented Saleh with a letter concerning the leadership of Libya’s High National Elections Commission. The letter is expected to be referred to the House of Representatives for consideration within the framework of the institution’s procedures and powers.
The 13+13 committee established by the House of Representatives and the High Council of State also discussed appointments to Libya’s sovereign positions in January 2021 in Bouznika, Morocco. These positions included the presidency of the High Judicial Council, the prosecutor general’s office, the governorship of the Central Bank, the presidency of the National Oil Corporation, the head of the General Intelligence Service and the presidency of the Elections Commission.
Kalın meets with Saleh and Takala
Security sources said that İbrahim Kalın, Türkiye’s intelligence chief, also met with Saleh and Takala in Ankara on Thursday. The meeting addressed developments in Libya and the region, steps to deepen cooperation between Libya and Türkiye, efforts to achieve political and military unity, and the preservation of stability in the country.
The participants also discussed possible steps to achieve lasting progress on unresolved issues and establish broad agreement among Libya’s parties. They emphasized the importance of the two councils’ role in supporting stability and advancing the political process, and agreed to pursue political unity and the unification of institutions.
Libya has two rival governments
Efforts have been under way for years to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya, resolve disputes over executive authority, and achieve military and political integration. However, no results have yet been achieved on these issues.
The Ankara meeting was the first occasion on which the heads of the two institutions addressed these issues under Türkiye’s auspices. Libya remains divided between the Government of National Unity, based in Tripoli in the west and headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, and the Osama Hammad government, which is influential in the east and south and was appointed by the House of Representatives in early 2022.
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya is also continuing its efforts to advance elections that could help resolve the crisis.
