Mohamed al-Menfi, chairman of the Presidential Council, said on Saturday he would urge candidates who are planning to run for the general elections not to take part unless there was consensus on the vote’s legal framework.
Speaking to Reuters in New York, al-Menfi said it was his goal to make sure the national presidential and parliamentary elections went ahead as planned on December 24.
Despite this, he warned that “not having a proper vision towards this election and not having consensus is by itself a risk”.
The council’s chairman pointed out that the responsibility of creating a legal basis for the elections lays at the hands of the House of Representative and the High Council of State. However, he explained that “the problem is not about the legality of the laws… it’s a political problem”.
Al-Menfi said the Presidential Council will step in only if the other bodies – the Hot, the HCS, the UN and the LPDF – were unable to resolve a legal framework.