Libyan Political Dialogue Forum taking place in Geneva: THREAD

This week the 75 members of the UN-backed political forum are supposed to select a new interim executive composed of a 3-person Presidency Council & a separately appointed PM to lead Libya until elections. 1/

If successful, an agreement on new executive could be a real step forward in stabilising & unifying Libya divided into two since 2014. It will not be easy given complicated voting system and deeps rifts bw factions on who they want to see lead the country. 2/

There are 24 candidates running for a seat on the Presidency Council and 21 for PM position. All candidates have been asked to give a short presentation to the forum (which is also livestreamed on http://webtv.un.org/ ).

What has happened so far? 3/

Those running for a in the Pres Council gave their presentation and voting according to region-based system has taken place. This means that 75 forum members were divided into 3 electoral colleges based on Libya’s 3 historical regions (Tripolitania, Cyrenaica & Fezzan) 4/

Each electoral college voted for their region’s representative for the Presidency Council. To win a seat in the council, at least 70 per cent of the regional subgroup should endorse a candidate. But none of the candidates received that level of endorsement, UN announced. 5/

Candidates who received most votes (but still insufficient to be declared a winner) are well-known Libyan figures: head of High State Council Khaled Mishri received 8 of the 37 votes from Western Libya; HoR president Aghela Saleh received 9 out of 23 from the East 6/

Having declared that there is no "regional" winner for the Presidency Council, the forum tmr will move to choose the Prime Minister. To win in first round, a PM candidate will need to win +70 % of the votes in a plenary session. With 21 candidates, that is unlikely. 7/

At that point a list-based voting system will kick in. This means that forum members will vote on lists specifying the candidates for the prime minister and the 3 Presidency Council positions. Each list will be put to a plenary vote if at least 17 forum members endorse it. 8/

It will be a scramble to get those lists finalised in next 48hrs. Candidates for PM are waiting to see how well individual candidates for PC do in the first voting round before agreeing to run together in a list, and vice versa. All are hedging their bets. 9/

If a list wins 60% of total votes in first round of plenary vote, a new executive will be formed on that basis. If no list reaches that threshold, the 2 that won the highest number of votes will enter a run-off, with the list that secures 50 per cent plus one vote winning. 10/

It is going to be complicated. Much can still go wrong. But it is uplifting to see candidates delivering political speeches, rather than making hate-filled declarations of war.

Stay tuned to see what happens next. 11/11