Its chairman, Imad al-Sayeh, said that the deposits for the presidency would only be accepted until 22 November 2021 and only at the Commission's branches located in the three regional capitals, Tripoli (Tripolitania), Benghazi (Cyrenaica) and Sebha (Fezzan). Candidatures for the House of Representatives will be accepted in all offices of the National Electoral Commission throughout the country until 7 December 2021.
2.83 million voter cards (out of approximately 7 million inhabitants) - it was necessary to register until the end of August 2021 on the HNEC online platform to obtain one - will be available for distribution in 1,906 polling centres from Monday afternoon, 8 November 2021. This will last for a period of two weeks. Imad al-Sayeh calls on voters to "assume their responsibilities and comply with electoral rules."
A country still torn apart
Municipal elections were held in 2019, 2020 and again in January 2021 in thirty-five municipalities (out of 116 registered).
After ten years of civil war, which began with the fall and assassination of Muammar Gaddafi, who was on the run in conditions that have not yet been fully clarified, Libya is struggling to unite again. In a country in chaos, the east and west of the country continue to be torn apart, despite a permanent ceasefire agreement in force since October 2020. The parliament in Tobruk (east) continues to go it alone and oppose the provisional government in Tripoli (west). On 9 September 2021, it even ratified, without a vote, an electoral law to grant the right to the military to run in elections (to favour its candidate Marshal Khalifa Haftar). On 21 September 2021, it passed a motion of no confidence in the government. Even the High State Council (HSC) called in September 2021 for the postponement of the presidential elections by at least one year.
This electoral theatre set up on quicksand is rocking all the more since 20,000 mercenaries (notably Russian), according to the UN, remain in the country, as well as soldiers of the Turkish army. Supporters of the former government based in Tripoli, they have prevented Khalifa Haftar from taking over the capital. Not to mention the exsanguinated economy facing two huge challenges inherited from the civil war and the absence of effective governance: water stress and the management of hydrocarbons.
However, the United Nations, which initiated these elections in November 2020, wants to believe that these polls will allow Libya to get out of this East-West division, of these structural problems and especially to pacify it.
Imad al-Sayeh assured that he would do "everything to ensure that these elections are free and fair. At the end of an international conference for the stability of Libya ( 21 October 2021 in Tripoli), representatives of foreign delegations and international institutions promised their help to the HNEC to organize transparent elections.
Read also our survey on Libya (in six parts)
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Many contenders for the post of President Khalifa Haftar (77): Commander-in-chief of the Libyan National Army since 2015, strongly opposed to the Islamists, the marshal failed to take control of Tripoli during the second Libyan civil war. The former strongman of the east of the country agreed to sign a ceasefire with Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, with the two adversaries allowing a democratic transition. |