BOUZNIKA /Morocco/, June 7. /TASS/. Libya’s 6+6 Joint Committee, comprising members of the High Council of State and the House of Representatives, has reached breakthrough agreements regarding the presidential and parliamentary elections, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said.
The minister met with the press in the Moroccan city of Bouznika some 40 km southwest of the capital Rabat. The resort hosted a series of 6+6 Joint Committee meetings that began on May 22, a TASS correspondent reported. Members of the committee were to prepare a legislative basis for holding presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya.
"Libyan brothers proved that they can achieve consensus if they are provided with a platform [for negotiations]. The meetings in Bouznika helped to achieve important agreements regarding the presidential and parliamentary elections. We consider this to be an important and fundamental event, and a sign of future good results. And we hope that the agreements reached here today will lay a foundation for organizing the elections in Libya," Bourita told reporters.
During the meetings in Bouznika, the committee approved the law on elections to Libya’s bicameral National Assembly and its two chambers - the House of Representatives and the Senate. The law on presidential elections was also drafted.
Parliamentary elections in Libya are tentatively scheduled for December 2023, while the presidential vote is slated for January 2024.
The draft laws, approved by the committee, are yet to be passed by the House of Representatives.
Currently, there are effectively two governments in Libya: the Cabinet in the East, led by Fathi Bashaga, supported by the parliament - and the Government of National Accord, led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, with headquarters in Tripoli. On June 22 last year, the interim period set by the UN and based on the Geneva agreements, expired. A president and a parliament were supposed to be elected by that time, but the elections were canceled due to the lack of the necessary constitutional framework.