The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) welcomes the approval of the new Government of National Unity by Libya’s House of Representatives (HoR) today in Sirte.

The new government, which won the vote of confidence with a clear majority by 132 votes to two against, will be tasked with organising the elections planned for 24 December 2021.

“This is a welcome moment for the Libyan people after years of war and division. It is first time the parliament has met to approve a unity government since the crisis began,” said David Harland, HD’s Executive Director. “It is now time to move swiftly towards elections.”

HD’s MENA Director, Romain Grandjean, underlined the need to maintain momentum.

“Prime Minister Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba will face many challenges in the coming months. We look forward to working with him as well as all other Libyan institutions and stakeholders to support the electoral process, and the peaceful transition of power,” he said.

“We are delighted to see women have been nominated to key ministries, and hope that more women will be appointed to senior governmental positions as outlined in the Roadmap agreed last November in Tunis.”

The new unity government was approved less than eight months after outgoing Prime Minister Serraj and President of the HoR called for a ceasefire last August to end the war that had raged since April 2019.

It was symbolic that today’s vote was held in the city of Sirte, which has repeatedly witnessed conflict since 2011 and until little over 4 years ago was controlled by ISIS.

HD is honoured to have supported United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) in relaunching the political process by facilitating agreement the between the main Libyan political actors in Montreux in September 2020, and on the subsequent Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF).

HD also worked with the UN on the National Conference Process (NCP) during 2017-2018.

The conclusions of the National Conference Process showed that Libyans are united in their wish to hold elections. The Roadmap agreed upon by the LPDF outlines clear steps to take in order to organise these elections by the end of the year. 

The new Government will also need to move quickly to tackle the problems in the delivery of basic public services to citizens, as well as measures to  deal with the worrying spread of COVID-19 in the country.