Libya's High National Elections Commission (HNEC) is preparing to officially kickstart the registration of candidates for the presidential and parliamentary elections next Sunday. At the same time, the joint military committee is preparing to negotiate with Turkey and Russia on the simultaneous withdrawal of mercenaries from Libyan territory.
Head of HNEC, Emad Al-Din Al-Sayeh, informed local Libyan media that the country would be one electoral district in which all candidates for the presidential elections will compete. The winner is the one who gets 50% + 1 of the votes during the first round.
A second round will be held if no candidate secures the needed votes.
As for parliamentary elections, Al-Sayeh said they would be based on the individual system, where the country is divided into 75 districts, and the candidate with the most votes wins over their district.
Adding more ambiguity to the controversy between the House of Representatives and the state over the presidential and parliamentary elections laws, Al-Sayeh confirmed that the state had responded to technical amendments requested by the HNEC.
The HNEC had announced that it would provide a comprehensive briefing on the developments of the electoral process in a press conference on Sunday.
In other news, Libya’s High Council of State expressed concerns over plans to hold a presidential election without having a constitution to regulate the country’s affairs.
The council’s chairperson, Khalid Al-Mishri, told reporters in Tripoli that the move might lead to a “possible coup in Libya.”
Al-Mishri added that the council was refusing to allow “dual nationals and military personnel to run for president,” accusing Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar of “attempting to take part in the elections by cheating.”
The Tobruk government in the east is not a “legislative body,” Al-Mishri explained, adding that it was “dissolved by a decision of the Constitutional Commission.”
