On 14th October 2021, Fabio Bargiacchi, Founder and Executive Director of ECES, and the Chairman of the Board of the High National Electoral Commission of Libya (HNEC), Mr. Dr. Imad Al-Sayeh, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at strengthening their cooperation in the areas of Electoral Integrity and Prevention of Electoral conflicts and violence.
The Executive Director was accompanied in Tunis, at the signature of the MoU, by Joëlle Milquet, President of the ECES’ Strategic & Advisory Committee (and Former Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium) and by ECES collaborators Zohirr Abushnaf and Ameni Gassoumi.
This document sanctions a major step forward in the collaboration between the two organizations. The MoU intends to further strengthen the cooperation and synergies between ECES and the HNEC, recognising their complementarity in the promotion of electoral integrity, the prevention of electoral conflicts and the enhancement of human rights in relation to electoral processes in Libya.
The Partnership has emerged from the intersection of ECES work in supporting democratic and electoral processes in particular in the sphere of preventing and mitigating electoral conflicts including peace mediation in electoral processes and capacity and HNEC’s conceptual and practical knowledge in the implementation of electoral processes in Libya linked to its official mandate.
Among other activities, ECES will collaborate with the HNEC also in the main areas related to, but not exclusively:
- Prevention, management and mitigation of Electoral violence
- Political dialogue including peace mediation for electoral processes
- Institutional Communication, Media Monitoring and Media Trainings
- Confidence-building dialogue initiatives
- Advisory support and strengthening the capacity of HNEC and key electoral stakeholders
ECES aims to remain a long-term partner of HNEC, including in dealing with issues related to peace mediation for electoral processes, the latest ECES copyright.
Upon signing, Dr. Imad Al-Sayeh stated:
“We have signed today an MoU, which marks the beginning of the cooperation between the High National Election Commission of Libya and The European Center for Electoral Support. This cooperation will be in the area of capacity development in electoral administration, promotion of electoral integrity, prevention of electoral conflicts and implementation of electoral operations.
We look forward a long-term partnership with ECES for them to contribute to further professionalization of our electoral administration and establishment of an electoral culture which is necessary in the democratic of the “Future Libya”.
Fabio Bargiacchi stated: “This memorandum of understanding reiterates our commitment to supporting at short and long term electoral stakeholders in Libya, and emphasize the ambitious amount of willingness ECES is ready to offer for the HNEC electoral integrity consolidation. This agreement perfectly embodies one of the many missions that are at the core of ECES work, namely to strengthen electoral capacities in a challenging political context also via our new methodological tool for “peace mediation in electoral processes.”
