Legality of the Supreme Council of Libya announces Al-Mishri’s victory in the presidency and Takala resorts to the judiciary | News

The Legal Committee approvedSupreme Council of State In Libya, the candidate is superior Khaled Al-Mashriover his current presidential rival. Mohammed Takalaby 69 votes to 68, in the controversial elections for the presidency of the council that took place two days ago.

The official page of the Council published a statement yesterday, Thursday, from the Legal Committee, after a legal controversy and objection to the validity of a ballot paper in the Council presidency elections that took place on Tuesday.

The committee said, “We received a complaint from Council member Khaled Al-Mishri, to express a legal opinion on the disputed ballot paper in the Council presidency elections, in terms of whether it should be counted or cancelled.”

The grievance came after controversy during Tuesday's session dedicated to electing a council president, a position for which internal elections are held among members every year according to the internal regulations.

The controversy was sparked by the presence of an election paper during the second round, on which the name of the candidate Takala was written “on the back”, which is a violation of the law for electing the Speaker of the Council, according to previous statements by a number of members.

While candidate Takala announced – in a video statement on Tuesday – referring the matter to the judiciary and setting August 20 as the date for holding new elections, Al-Mishri said in a press conference the same day that the council's legal committee is the one legally competent to consider such matters.

canceled paper

In its legal response yesterday, the Legal Committee confirmed that it had met “with a full quorum and deemed that the disputed ballot was invalid and not valid in calculating the votes of the 139 voters.”

She added, “Accordingly, the distribution of votes will be as follows: 68 votes for the candidate Takala versus 69 votes for Al-Mishri,” in addition to two uncounted ballots, “which means that Al-Mishri is the president” of the State Council.

On August 6, 2023, during an official session held by the Supreme Council of State, members Al-Mishri, Takala, Naima Al-Hami, and Naji Mukhtar were nominated for the presidency of the Council.

Since none of the candidates received 66 votes to win, a second round of elections was held in which Takala won with 67 votes, while his competitor Al-Mishri received 62 votes, thus leaving the presidency of the council since his first election on April 4, 2018, before returning through last Tuesday’s elections.

The Supreme Council of State is an advisory body, and shares several powers with the House of Representatives, including selecting the Prime Minister, submitting comments on the proposed budget, and selecting sovereign positions.

Currently, there are two governments in Libya, one of which is recognized by the United Nations, which is the government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, headquartered in the capital, Tripoli, and from which it administers the entire west of the country.

The second is the government of Osama Hamad, which was assigned by the House of Representatives, and is headquartered in the city of Benghazi. It administers the entire east of the country and cities in the south.

This situation has deepened a political crisis that Libyans hope will be resolved through presidential and parliamentary elections, which are prevented from being held due to disagreements over their laws and the executive body that will supervise them.