Comments on the parliamentary elections by SRSG for Libya and Head of UNSMIL, Tarek Mitri, while visiting a polling station and the High National Elections Commission in Tripoli, Wednesday 25 June 2014

“This election is extremely well organized. One has to commend the Libyan High National Elections Commission for the good and professional work they are doing. We are very pleased to work with them. As United Nations, we offer them technical assistance and our experience has been one of the best with them.

It is everybody’s hope that the turnout today is as high as it can be. The Libyans have wanted these elections. They wanted the General National Congress to go and I hope they will express their support for the emergence of a new parliament which augurs a third transitional phase that, hopefully, will not be very long.

All elections are important in a sense. In a time of transition, people who have been deprived of the right to elect for 43 years are eager to choose their representatives. They sometimes run out of patience very quickly and, therefore, they want to have as many elections as they can.

It is a high frequency, but they (elections) are meaningful in the sense that they would, hopefully, put an end to the controversy that has surrounded the former General National Congress and create new dynamics that would lead the country into the adoption of a constitution and into the formation of a government that is more stable. I think Libya needs stability, not just in terms of security but also political stability. Let us hope this election opens the way for greater political stability.

I am hopeful, as many Libyans are, that the Libyans will vote in large numbers. Libyans wanted these elections and it is for them to express their will by voting.

This is an opportunity to commend the High National Elections Commission for their professionalism and the high level of seriousness and accuracy. We in the United Nations stand by their side, offer advice and technical assistance. They are in the lead, theyare the ones responsible and they are doing the work. . We offer them some help to ensure, together with them, that these elections take place in the best circumstances possible.

Many people expect these elections to launch a new political dynamic, a shift from what appeared to be a confrontation characterized by sharp divisions in Libyan society, to a condition of normal political competition. The importance of these elections is that they offer an opportunity for interaction, for dialogue, for diversity in choices while contributing to breaking the intensity of contradictions in society.

Libya needs this. Libya needs political institutions that people trust. Libya needs political institutions whose legitimacy no one can question. Libya needs political institutions that reflect all the diversity present in Libyan society.