Statement of the Ihya Libya Bloc on the UNSMIL declaration regarding the December 24, 2021 elections in Libya
November 14, 2020
Statement of the Ihya Libya Bloc on the UNSMIL declaration regarding the December 24, 2021 elections in Libya, and also the unwillingness of both the Chairman of the Ihya Libya Bloc and its members to run for positions proposed on the sidelines of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum sessions in Tunisia.
Further to our memorandum sent to the United Nations Support Missions in Libya (UNSMIL), as well as to a number of world capitals on October 25, 2020, and our previous letter to the UNSMIL on the 23rd of October 2020, in which we presented our proposals, observations and reservations on the details of the Libyan Political Dialogue currently taking place in the sisterly Republic of Tunisia; we would like to affirm the following:
(1)- We would like to express our thanks to the United Nations for embarking on responding to our call, reverberated by many Libyans, to “absolutely commit to a specific date for holding urgent presidential and parliamentary in Libya, with international support and supervision, via the UNSMIL’s announcement yesterday of the date of December 24, 2021 as the specific date for holding national elections in the country.” We, herby, call upon the UNSMIL to officially state that these forthcoming elections will be direct and internationally monitored Presidential and Parliamentary elections. We also ask the United Nations’ Mission to confirm its commitment and oblige everyone with the elections’ date it has announced by drafting it in the form of a binding resolution to be issued by the UN Security Council in order to reassure the Libyan people who have witnessed a lot of stalling and procrastination in previously promised dates in connection with holding such elections in a number of declarations over the past years; the most important of which were the two declarations of the Paris and Palermo conferences, in addition to several other announcements by the Government of National Accord on a number of occasions, despite the existence of an established constitutional basis for calling for such elections, namely Resolution No. (5) of 2014, and the constitutional amendments included in the decisions of the February Committee, which are still binding because they were issued with a valid quorum and an absolute majority, and no decision has been issued so far by the legitimate legislative body in Libya to invalidate or reverse them. It also spares us further delays caused by creating contrived problems regarding the ‘Constitutional Rule.’
(2)- We express our deepest regret that the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has failed to take into account the rest of our proposals in our memorandum mentioned above, particularly our proposals pertaining to the need for a pan-Libya inclusiveness that accommodates all the components of the country’s social fabric, as well as respecting the Libyan demographic realities, and the regional historical particularities, where entire regions, cities, and tribes in Libya have been excluded and denied any fair representation, whatsoever, in the dialogue sessions taking place in Tunisia.
(3)- In conclusion, we thank the ladies and gentlemen, members of the Libyan Political Dialogue, who have reached out to us regarding the nomination of the Chairman of the Ihya Libya Bloc, Dr Aref Ali Nayed, for the position of the Prime Minister of the government to be formed through the sessions taking place in Tunisia. We extend our thanks for their trust, and appreciation and apology to them, for the unwillingness of the Ihya Libya Bloc to participate, in any way, in the proposed government, since we prefer to focus on political participation only after restoring the right to direct and fair voting for the Libyan people and that is through the announced Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
By and large, the Ihya Libya Bloc will launch its elections campaign with its Presidential candidate, Dr Aref Ali Nayed, and will certainly participate in the Parliamentary elections with Libyan candidates, men and women, who share our unifying vision for Libya (Ihya Libya Vision, ihyalibya.com). We will also embark on inaugurating branches for the Ihya Libya Bloc throughout Libya as soon as possible to hold training courses and organize youth activities in collaboration with the Libya Institute for Advanced Studies (libyainstitute.com).
May God Almighty preserve Libya, and help us all make it a free, independent, unified, and prosperous state.
Issued on the 14th of November, 2020
