Libya's 4+4 Small Dialogue Committee signs draft final deal to restructure election commission

• UN envoy hails agreement as ‘another important milestone in Libya’s journey toward stability and national unity’

Libya’s 4+4 Small Dialogue Committee on Sunday announced the signing of a draft final agreement to restructure the High National Elections Commission and review election laws.

The agreement was signed during an official ceremony at the headquarters of the UN Support Mission in Libya in the capital Tripoli, attended by members of the 4+4 Committee, several ambassadors, members of the House of Representatives and the High Council of State, and a representative of the Libyan Presidential Council, an Anadolu correspondent reported.

The agreement was read out by Walid Al-Lafi, head of the Government of National Unity’s delegation to the 4+4 Committee, and Al-Shaibani Abu Hamoud, delegation head of the General Command of the Libyan National Army in the country’s east, in the presence of UN envoy to Libya Hanna Tetteh.

The 4+4 Committee comprises four members representing the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity and four representing eastern Libya. It has been holding UN-sponsored talks since April 2026 aimed at breaking the country’s political deadlock and advancing the implementation of a UN roadmap for holding elections and unifying executive authority.

The agreement provides for restructuring the board of the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) and appointing Dhaou Ibrahim Attia as chairman of the commission board and Sana al-Lishani as his deputy.

It set a timetable for holding parliamentary and presidential elections under a single executive authority and unified national institutions within no more than 24 months.

Regarding the candidacy of military personnel and dual nationals, the agreement allows “dual nationals to run in presidential elections, with guarantees requiring the winning candidate to renounce any non-Libyan nationality before taking the constitutional oath, in addition to proposing a legal remedy that would lead to the electoral process being repeated if the candidate is unable to meet this condition.”

It also permits military personnel to participate in presidential elections as candidates and voters, and requires presidential candidates to secure 20,000 endorsements from registered voters across Libya.

Regarding the country’s constitution, the 4+4 Committee agreed to “authorize the newly elected parliament to address issues related to the permanent constitution, including its adoption.”

It also stipulates that sessions of the elected House of Representatives and the executive authority be held periodically, according to a fixed rotation, in Tripoli, Benghazi in the east and Sabha in the south.

Milestone

UN envoy Tetteh hailed the agreement as “another important milestone in Libya’s journey toward stability and national unity.”

She said the agreement supports “our collective efforts” aimed at creating the conditions for holding national elections and unifying institutions.

She said its success was the result of discussions that began in Rome, Italy, on April 29 and continued through seven rounds of talks at the UN mission’s headquarters in Tunisia.

On Aug. 20, the 4+4 Committee initialed the draft final agreement on elections and the unification of the executive authority.

The committee has been holding talks for months, after the UN envoy to Libya announced during her April 22 briefing to the Security Council that she had engaged with a small group of Libyan stakeholders.

The latest agreement is part of UN-led efforts to create conditions to hold elections to end Libya's political division between two rival administrations: the Government of National Unity led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh in Tripoli, which governs western Libya, and the eastern-based government headed by Osama Hammad, appointed by the House of Representatives in early 2022 and administering eastern Libya and much of the country's south.

​​​​​​​Libyans hope that the long-awaited elections will end political and armed conflicts and bring to a close the successive transitional periods that have continued since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, which ruled from 1969 to 2011.