As she bids farewell, Williams urges elections within “firm constitutional framework”

The Special Advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General on Libya, Stephanie Williams, has appealed to the country’s rivals to agree to hold elections “within a firm constitutional framework”.

As her tenure comes to an end, Williams released her last statement as U.N. Advisor on Libya in which she affirmed that her “top priority” was to “listen to the millions of Libyans who registered to vote to go to the ballot box to restore the legitimacy of the country’s institutions via national elections.”

“I believe it is only with the establishment of a consensual constitutional framework which sets the milestones, the contract between the governed and those who govern them, and the guardrails for the end of the transitional period through national elections that the current political stalemate and recurrent executive crisis can be overcome,” she said.

“I have endeavored to reach out to the broadest possible spectrum of interlocutors and representatives of Libya’s political, security and social domains to listen and understand their concerns, their vision for the future of their country and their ideas and suggestions to help Libya end the long period of transition that has beset the country since 2011,” explained the U.S. native.

“I appreciate the commitment of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission, with whom I have had the pleasure to work for over two years, to maintain the October 2020 ceasefire agreement and to press ahead with plans to unify the military institutions and to arrange the departure of mercenaries and foreign forces who violate Libyan sovereignty,” she added.

Nevertheless, the U.N. diplomat said that she remains concerned about several issues in Libya, including “efforts to politicize the National Oil Corporation (NOC)” and “many women who have been attacked, abused, illegally detained, disappeared and perished for their political ideas.”