Aguila Saleh on the Bouznika Agreement: It includes laws aimed at disrupting the elections

Libyan Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh said that the election law, which was approved by the 6 + 6 committee a week ago in the Moroccan city of Bouznika, includes points aimed at “thwarting the electoral process.”

Saleh added, in his speech during the opening of a plenary session in the city of Benghazi, today, Monday, that Parliament has not yet officially received the agreed-upon election law.

And last Tuesday, the committee approved the law for electing the president and parliament and the conditions for running for the presidency, which have always been subject to dispute.

With regard to the candidacy of the military, the law states that the candidate is considered to have resigned from his position “by the force of law, after accepting his candidacy, whether it was civilian or military, and it is also required that the candidate not be finally convicted of a felony.”

However, Parliament Speaker Aqila Saleh expressed his reservations about this agreement, and criticized holding the presidential elections in two rounds, and considered that this aims to “thwart the electoral process,” noting that “there is no justification for making the presidential elections in two rounds.”

And he continued during the parliament session, saying, “Even if the candidate gets 99% of the votes, the second round will take place,” and he said, “This law is unprecedented and did not happen in any country in the world.”

Regarding the conditions for running for the presidency for the military, Aqila Saleh said that the candidate, whether military or civilian, must resign by force of law when he runs for the elections and return to his previous work if he does not win.

The fate of the Bouznika agreement still faces ambiguity and lacks the guarantees of its implementation and the commitment of the political actors to implement it, after renewed disagreements over some laws, as Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh and the High Council of State, Khaled Al-Mashri, are calling for amendments regarding the conditions for running for the presidency.

In this context, the Parliament Speaker called on all members to work on continuing the debate on the election law issued by the 6 + 6 committee and to consider coming up with consensual laws.