The Head of the High Council of State (HCS) Khalid Al-Mishri, said that the 13th amendment to the constitutional declaration issued by the House of Representatives (HoR) recently did not come overnight, but rather, it was the result of lengthy consultations between the two chambers, pointing out that this amendment "immunizes the upcoming elections against any constitutional appeals".

Al-Mishri added in a televized statement on Saturday that the HCS had already voted on this amendment article by article, stressing that it did not cancel other constitutional amendments as some claimed, but it only went in line with the articles of Chapter III of the draft constitution: the system of government.

The Head of the HCS explained that the proposal for the direct election of the president is one of the proposals of the February 2014 committee, as well as the Libyan political agreement, and the outputs of the Political Dialogue Forum in Geneva, where parties agreed that presidential and parliamentary elections should be held. 

Al-Mishri added that some of those who now reject the presidential system ran for office during the presidential elections that were scheduled for December 24, 2021, asking, "Does the momentum accompanying these elections not signify popular acceptance?"

He also indicated that the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, proposed that the UN Support Mission in Libya forms a high-level committee for elections concerned with completing electoral laws. He also revealed that the proposed committee consists of a maximum of thirty to forty members and includes representatives of relevant institutions, key political figures, leaders of influential tribal and cultural components, civil society organizations, security agencies, representatives from the south and west, and of women and youth.

Al-Mishri warned that "what is dangerous in the UN envoy's proposal is that the decision to form the committee stipulates that its decisions will not be binding except after the approval of Bathily," and added "that this proposal is unacceptable, because it affects the national sovereignty of the state."

The HoR published last Thursday the 13th amendment to the Constitutional Declaration in the fourth issue of the Official Gazette, including 34 articles, after it had approved it on February 07. By doing so, the HoR did not pay any attention to the political agreement that requires the parliament to agree with the HCS when making any constitutional amendments, knowing that the latter was unable to hold a session to discuss the amendment.