Bridging Committee fails to reach agreement, refers proposals to LPDF plenary

The Bridging Proposals Committee of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) completed its fourth session yesterday by reaching an agreement on a constitutional framework for the elections on December 24, 2021. The issue has now been submitted to the LPDF plenary for consideration.

Raisedon Zenenga, the Mission Coordinator of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), led the fourth and final virtual session of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum’s Proposal Bridging Committee (PBC) on Monday.

The purpose of the PBC sessions was to reach an agreement on one or more bridging ideas for a constitutional foundation for the forthcoming national elections on December 24, 2021, based on the Legal Committee’s draft. The Committee was presented with four full-fledged suggestions that had been submitted within the deadlines established by its members.

The committee members recognized that all options for reaching a consensus on a single plan had been exhausted, therefore they asked the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to forward the four ideas to the LPDF plenary for discussion and determination.

The Committee reached an agreement on a procedure for the expected LPDF vote on proposal/s. The proposed voting method, together with the recommendations, will be presented to the LDFP plenary.

Raisedon Zenenga, Assistant Secretary-General and Mission Coordinator of UNSMIL, stated at yesterday’s PBC meeting, “The LPDF began with one proposal from its Legal Committee in May, then considered another proposal from members of its Advisory Committee in Geneva in June, but ended up with three proposals in Geneva and now four proposals from the PBC.”

“Furthermore, three groups have already been entrusted with preparing a constitutional foundation for the elections: the House of Representatives-High Council of State-Joint Committee, the LPDF Legal Committee, and the LPDF Advisory Committee, all with inconclusive results. The fourth Committee was the PBC.”

UNSMIL extended its gratitude to the PBC members for their work and anticipates that the next LPDF plenary will provide a proposal for the constitutional foundation to allow the conduct of national elections on December 24, 2021, as outlined in the LPDF Roadmap and mandated by UN Security Council Resolution 2570. The next LPDF plenary will be facilitated by UNSMIL.