TRIPOLI: Libya’s eastern-based parliament has approved a national reconciliation and transitional justice law, three lawmakers said, a measure aimed at reunifying the oil-producing country after over a decade of factional conflict.

The House of Representatives spokesperson, Abdullah Belaihaq, said on the X platform that the legislation was passed on Tuesday by a majority of the session’s attendees in Libya’s largest second city Benghazi.

However, implementing the law could be challenging as Libya has been divided since a 2014 civil war that spawned two rival administrations vying for power in east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.

“I hope that it (the law) will be in effect all over the country and will not face any difficulty,” House member Abdulmenam Alorafi told Reuters by phone on Wednesday.

The UN mission to Libya has repeatedly called for an inclusive, rights-based transitional justice and reconciliation process in the North African country.

A political process to end years of institutional division and outright warfare has been stalled since an election scheduled for December 2021 collapsed amid disputes over the eligibility of the main candidates.

In Tripoli, there is the Government of National Unity under Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah that was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021, but the parliament no longer recognizes its legitimacy. Dbeibah has vowed not to cede power to a new government without national elections.

There are two competing legislative bodies — the HoR that was elected in 2014 as the national parliament with a four-year mandate to oversee a political transition, and the High Council of State in Tripoli formed as part of a 2015 political agreement and drawn from a parliament first elected in 2012.

The Tripoli-based Presidential Council, which came to power with GNU, has been working on a reconciliation project and holding “a comprehensive conference” with the support of the UN and African Union. But it has been unable to bring all rival groups together because of their continuing differences.

BEIRUT: A day before the Lebanese parliament was due to assemble to discuss the election of a president — an office that has remained vacant for more than 26 months — there was a flurry of activity on Wednesday including intensified discussions, communications and declarations.
Reports in the afternoon suggested that Hezbollah’s preferred candidate, Suleiman Frangieh, “may announce his withdrawal from the presidential race,” leaving army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun as the leading contender.
The day was marked by a visit from French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian, who arrived in Beirut on Tuesday evening and was expected to attend the parliamentary presidential election session on Thursday.
He held meetings with several political and parliamentary figures, during which he reportedly recommended Aoun for “consideration without any preconditions.” This was in relation to the bloc of Hezbollah and Amal Movement MPs who opposed the general’s nomination on the grounds that his election would require a constitutional amendment because he still serves in his capacity as commander of the army.
The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, was quoted after meeting the French envoy as saying: “Hezbollah will not stand in the way of the Lebanese people’s consensus on the name of a president for the republic.”
Media estimates suggest that Aoun, if he secures the support of Hezbollah and Amal, would win 95 votes in the 128-member parliament. This level of support would mean a constitutional amendment is not needed.
Events leading up to Thursday’s session suggested all parliamentary blocs are committed to attending, which would ensure the quorum required for the election is reached. The presidency has been vacant since former president Michel Aoun’s term ended in October 2022. Previous attempts to appoint a successor failed amid disagreements between political factions about suitable candidates.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he was feeling “joy for the first time since the presidential vacancy as, God willing, we will have a new president for the republic tomorrow,” raising hopes that the office might finally be filled.
One political observer said there is now the real possibility that “all members of parliament, regardless of their political affiliations, would choose their candidate within the framework of consensus and understanding during the voting sessions, which will remain open as confirmed by the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, until” a decision is reached.
This renewed optimism was in contrast to the prior skepticism about the possibility that parliamentary blocs would be able to successfully convene a session to elect a president, given their previous failures to reach a consensus on a candidate who could secure a majority in the first round of voting.
The electoral session on Thursday will be the 13th of its kind. During the previous one, in June 2024, the candidate favored by Hezbollah and its allies, former minister and Marada Movement leader Suleiman Frangieh, who was close to the Assad regime in Syria, faced the candidate favored by the Free Patriotic Movement and opposition parties, former Minister of Finance Jihad Azour, who is director of the Middle East and Central Asia department at the International Monetary Fund.
During that session, Frangieh received 51 votes in the first round of voting and Azour 59. When the totals were announced, Hezbollah and Amal MPs withdrew from the session, thereby depriving it of the quorum required for a second round of voting, as stipulated by the constitution.
Against this background of long-running political divisions resulting in deadlock within the parliament, and in light of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the number of presidential candidates has dwindled from 11 to just a few names. Aside from Aoun, Frangieh and Azour, the other candidates whose names continued to circulate to varying degrees on Wednesday included Samir Geagea, the head of the Lebanese Forces party, which heads the parliament’s biggest Christian bloc. However, he is fiercely opposed by Hezbollah.
Less-discussed candidates include the acting chief of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, Elias Al-Bayssari; MP Ibrahim Kanaan, who resigned from the Free Patriotic Movement to join the Independent Consultative Parliamentary Gathering; and former ambassador Georges Al-Khoury, a retired brigadier general. Al-Khoury has the support of Maronite Patriarchate, Speaker Berri and the Free Patriotic Movement, but the majority of the opposition rejects his candidacy.
MP Neemat Frem, who has presented a political and economic vision for the country, is also a candidate. He is on good terms with the Patriarchate and the opposition. Others include Farid Al-Khazen, who is also on good terms with Berri and close to the Patriarchate, and Ziad Baroud, a human rights activist and former minister of interior who is seen as a consensus candidate.
The parliamentary blocs continued to hold talks on Wednesday afternoon to discuss preferred candidates. Lebanese Forces MP Fadi Karam said: “Starting today, there has been a significant shift toward having Joseph Aoun as a president.”
During a meeting on Wednesday, the Maronite Archbishops Council called for “a national parliamentary awakening that leads tomorrow to the election of a president who brings together the country’s sons and daughters within the framework of national unity, solidarity and reform, allowing Lebanon to regain its leading role in the East.”
The archbishops said: “The opportunity has become appropriate and available for national deliberation on the importance of Lebanon’s progress toward a positive neutrality that saves the country from the damage of conflicts and drives it toward a healthy cycle of one fruitful national life.”