 Welcome to this event entitled Libya General Elections 2021 Discussion Series with Libyan Leaders. This event is offered in both English and Arabic on the event page. Please choose the player which works best for you. I am Michael Yafri and I'm the Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa at the United States Institute of Peace. For those of you who have attended prior USIP events, let me welcome you back. And for those of you who are new to USIP, welcome and permit me to say a few words about the Institute. USIP was founded by an act of the US Congress in 1984 to serve as an independent nonpartisan institution dedicated to peace building, particularly the prevention, the mitigation and the resolution of violent conflict. We conduct research, training, convening and working conflict zones around the world with a field presence in 16 countries. USIP has been working in Libya since 2012 where we conduct research for informing policymakers and practitioners about conflict related issues and help to build a local peace infrastructure by strengthening the capacity of key stakeholders like women and youth in institutions like the Ministry of Justice. USIP recently began a project with funding from the US State Department to increase election security by working with the Ministry of Interior to strengthen the police's ability to partner and problem solve with communities. In light of the upcoming elections set to begin in December, today's event is a timely conversation with former Minister of Interior Fati Bashaga. This event is the first of several USIP will be hosting to provide a neutral platform to Libyans seeking to play a critical role, including high office in a future permanent government. These are not just any elections. They will provide Libyans with an opportunity to have their own say in their representation, including the first elected president of Libya. Elections are just the beginning of the journey, though, to set Libya on a path to deal with real issues of governance and sovereignty, like the presence of mercenaries in the country and foreign meddling, dealing with militias, institutional disunity, minorities, inclusion, and other matters of representative government. In the spirit of dialogue, the leaders we host will have several minutes to give opening remarks, after which I will ask them questions in order to explicate their positions and then ask the audience to pose questions to the to the speakers. To the audience, we encourage you to please send questions for former Minister Bashaga through the chat box, and we will try to get to as many as we can. You can also send questions through Twitter at hashtag Libya elections USIP. Now, I am pleased to introduce Fatih Bashaga. Minister Bashaga is originally from the city of Masrara in the west of Libya, where he pursued his secondary and university education. He graduated from the Libyan Aviation Academy in 1984 as a second lieutenant fighter pilot. In 1993, he resigned from the Air Force and started working in the field of trade and import. After the February 17 revolution, he held several important positions and in June 2014 was elected as a member of the Libyan House of Representatives, representing the city of Masrara. Mr. Bashaga served as Minister of Interior in the Libyan Government National Accord, the GNA, starting in October 2018. He entered office at a time when the GNA was still dealing with the repercussions of post-election violence in Tripoli, and ISIS had taken over the central city of Surge. Under his leadership, the ministry achieved many security reforms, strengthened border security, fought corruption, and succeeded in arresting many high-profile criminals such as human traffickers, drug and oil traffickers, and members of extremist groups. He also played an important role in strengthening relations and enhancing cooperation between Libya and various influential countries. The GNA maintained this position as an internationally recognized government while facing deep national political polarization in a very complex post-2014 context in the west of Libya, with an approach to integrate them into the ministry of the interior. On March 16, 2021, Mr. Bashaga handed over his duties to the minister of interior of the new national unity government that was formed in March 2021. The GNU has been tasked with leading the country towards long-awaited presidential and parliamentary elections. Mr. Bashaga is married and has five children, and he dedicates part of his time to supporting new sports initiatives and activities. He is also a scout leader, like me, and enjoys horseback riding. So with that, let me welcome former minister Bashaga, and we look forward to your opening remarks. Over to you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mark. Thank you, Mr. Michael. I would like to thank USIP for the head of the country director of USIP, Mr. Nate. I would like also to thank all the participants and attendees to this meeting. First of all, we can say that Libya exists in the northern part of the African continent. Libya is a big country comparing to its population, seven million people. Libya has land borders with six countries, and it has a coast with the Mediterranean, about 1,700 kilometers. So where the geographical positioning of Libya makes us a strategic country and an important player to maintain peace in the continent of Africa or even in the region. Moreover, Libya is about one hour and 15 minutes from Rome, and it can be a transit country from Africa to the European continent. Libya has a number of Latin natural resources. It has oil. We have many days with many sunny days to how to explore renewable energies. Libya discovered oil in 1957, but unfortunately, Libya didn't witness stability right after the discovery of oil. And in 1969, Libya witnessed a coup that destabilized completely national and social and political rest. And starting from 1970, Muhammad Gaddafi nationalized oil and commerce in Libya that impacted the entire Libyan society. I think that really made people hate their country and it became a transit country towards Europe. Libya became a country that could not meet the needs of its population. In the revolution of 2011, we thought or we expected that this revolution would categorically change Libya's situation. But because of the international and regional involvement or intervention in Libya, in addition to the political fragmentation that the country witnessed a few years after the revolution, all of these factors exacerbated the situation in Libya. Now, Libyans have become poor people within a very, very rich country. Now, Libya witnesses civil wars, fragmentation, and many other social phenomena that are fueling tensions in Libya. That's why recently we have agreed on agreeing or meeting in Berlin 1 and Berlin 2 to come up with outcomes on how to restore our former life in Libya. I believe that these two meetings in Berlin were really, really fruitful. In addition to that, we have the LIDF, the Libyan political dialogue, where we agreed on the data of elections, legislative or presidential election, with the involvement of course of the state institutions like the State Council and the parliament. Just to give you a quick history about the political process or tracker in Libya, I can tell you that we held the Ashrat meeting. Then we formed the CDC, the Constitution Drafting Committee, just to come up with a completely new institution and to create this harmonization or standardization between the different state institutions. But unfortunately, because of the political fragmentation and having two parliament, two presidents, two forces at the same time, all of these reasons impeded the economic revitalization or economic recovery in Libya, having two central banks in Libya where we don't have the decision coming from the central bank in the east or the central bank in the west. We haven't been able also to receive donations, international donations or fundings. Moreover, we haven't been able to do an accountability process in Libya as we have two main centers of powers. And we have overlapping of powers and the total impunity and any government that comes to solve the Libyan situation finds many difficulties as there are two centers of powers, two clashing centers for powers. We are always thinking of relaunching the main or the vital services including drinking water, electricity, internet. All of these services have been impeded in Libya because of this fragmentation. I can tell you and frankly speaking that Libya has one of the highest levels of corruption and it exacerbated right after the revolution, after 2012, particularly financial corruption. That's why we needed to think seriously of economic reform, social reform, as you can see the exchange rate difference between the US dollar and the Libyan. Also the lack of liquidity have made our public service employees and have salaries but do not have money to spend or to live comfortably in their country and made many of them leave the country and to work abroad. That's why we need to think all together now in how to restore our state institutions to have one and unique legislative authority, parliament, we have one central bank in Libya, one military apparatus and one harmonized security institution apparatus. All of these good things cannot happen without having elections where everyone is involved and everyone can participate to these elections. I can tell you that most of the existing state institutions not taking their powers or their legitimacy from the people but rather from individuals or from other external countries. That's why we want to have inclusive and comprehensive elections where everyone can be involved and can have a say in the upcoming government or present or any legitimate state institution. Moreover, Libya is full of experts, researchers, scholars in all the domains and sectors and they can really kick off revitalize economic revitalization, economic recovery programs and plans. We can, thanks to our economy engineers, we can think of getting rid of rent economy and to think of other alternatives. We can encourage the local investors to invest in Libya and to get rid of all forms and sorts of corruption in Libya. I can tell you that once Libya is stabilized again we can think of administrative reform, financial reform, economic reform and we enhance tremendously the capacities and capabilities of our central bank instead of having two central banks, two legislative powers and two presidents at the same time. Also, we need to encourage, to enhance the private sector and how we restore the economic relation, our financial relationships we used to have before 2011. I can give you an example. Before the revolution, Tunisia and us, we had economic transactions that exceeded $3 billion. Now we no longer have that figure but we hope one day we restore this $3 billion or even more. I can tell you that Libya, once it is stabilized, we think or we plan of outsourcing employees from 3 to 9 million employees in Libya in the different sectors whether private or republic. Also, Libya has a large desert or Sahara that stretches over from the far east to the far west until Egypt and we can exploit it for many sorts of economic activities including power plants, renewable energy, tourist activities or projects. I can tell you that once Libya is stable and prosperous, I can tell you that all the neighboring countries or even the countries in the other Mediterranean bank can be stable again. Libya, once it is stabilized, the other neighboring countries or even the sub-Saharan countries would have a positive impact and can counter or fight terrorism of all its forms, human trafficking, weapon trafficking and how we eradicate completely terrorism in the entire region and how to cut all the ties of irregular migration from the sub-Saharan countries to the Mediterranean countries. In addition to the smuggling of oil, they are not only smuggling oil but they are smuggling the main natural wealth of Libya and this can create many other problems and having people who are involved in many laundering and many smuggling and by doing so we can no longer talk about a stable country or a strong financial country. I would like to be long in my introduction but I can tell you about my experience in the Ministry of Interior. Mr. Faiz Sarraj gave me this responsibility. I assumed it with really so much fear. I was really scared of this big responsibility. I asked him to give me the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence but he insisted on assuming the responsibility of the Minister of Interior along with all the challenges and threats that you are familiar to. We have completely, during between 2012 and 2016, we had completely security apparatus. It was a crumbling day after day but my love for my country and this sense of feeling of responsibility encouraged me. Also many of my colleagues and other ministries encouraged me to assume this responsibility and I looked at the Ministry not as someone coming from my region but from someone who is Libyan and who is presenting all the Libyan tribes, races and communities. I insisted on providing Libyans with social justice with security and we succeeded to reconstruct and restructure the Ministry of Interior in Libya and I can tell you that many people working with me are really trustworthy people and who really wanted to bring reforms to Libya. This is all that I want to say. I give you back the floor. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Minister. That was a great overview of both the challenges that Libya faces and the new government will face but also many of the ideas that you have for how to focus energies on the economic reform, financial reform, political reforms. I'd like to begin though by focusing on the elections for a few minutes and in particular I just first begin with saying what is your assessment of whether the elections will actually happen on time. As we know presidential elections are scheduled for December and hopefully soon thereafter will be parliamentary elections. How do you see it? I think so far we still have a good opportunity to hold these elections on the due date but we are waiting for the HNEC to develop the exact timetable for the elections to be adopted by the parliament and to officially launch the election. However, I still think as I said that the 24th of December is still a possible date for the elections. Great. And as you know we are very interested in preventing election related violence at the elections and throughout the country. What do you see as some of the measures that should be taken in order to ensure a peaceful election cycle, including before, during and after election day? Now there is a keen desire and a keen momentum in the communities for these elections and when there is such popular endorsement in Libya, no power, no matter how powerful this power can stand in front of them. And this popular opinion or popular momentum is being supported by the international community to go ahead with these elections and we are witnessing a lot of or seeing a lot of support worldwide. So I think no one can can obstruct the process or sabotage the process. We do have fears and it is natural and human to have fears but I don't think that Libya has any interest in not holding these elections. Maybe there are some people who have their vested interests in the obstruction but we have to keep our sight on the interest of the state on reforming Libya and unifying the country. And so in my opinion the political minority that rejects this election as I said have vested interests or maybe they have positions in the current government that they don't want to leave this position of power. And I was one of those who run or who expressed my desire to run for back in Geneva. I said that this phase now is critical to move Libya from a state of fragmentation and division to a state of unification. And I run as a candidate knowing very well the challenges. I know that Libya now is in a bottleneck and we are at the abyss so we have to fight back and we have to work hard because Libya cannot stay in this quagmire in this very bad situation. Thank you. Thank you. You raise a number of issues here including the fact that the election process is still yet to be finalized including the registration process but if I could be so forthright and pick up on your last comment. Do you actually plan on running for the presidency? Yes, I want to run for the presidency and should HNIC open the door for registration I will present my nomination and I hope I will be able to meet all the conditions or criteria and hence I will be able to run. These elections are very important and I have been working for five or six months now to encourage people to subscribe to this process and to support this electoral process. Great, great. And you know, if you run and you succeed you will become Libya's first elected president. I wonder if you could just kind of give us some of your general thoughts about what it would mean to be the first president of Libya. What would be some of your priorities and what is your vision of leadership as the first president of Libya? Yes indeed it's the first free elections in Libya it will be a historical moment a milestone and I hope and I pray to God to have the honor to be elected and if I'm not elected I will also accept the results and I will be very happy to those who are the person who wins. Regarding my priorities, I think we have to reassure all the fabric of the Libyan community, we have to address them directly and to reassure them that the future Libyan state will be governed in accordance with justice and equality and all Libyans will be equal in front of the law and will be part of this national project. We of course need international assistance, chiefly American assistance and support to help Libya move from this situation into prosperity that is and regarding my personal priorities I think it's security because security is the key for prosperity and economic recovery. Security will be the starting point for reforms, for service reforms or also for systematic system reforms, financial systems, the economic system and the restoration of economy, the restoration or the recovery of the level of economy will help also and reinforce security because when people work they tend to be, they tend to reject insecurity. I think this is a summary of my priorities, hopefully. Sorry about that. In your opening remarks you also mentioned a deep deep concern about fragmentation within the country and I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what you would do to bring more unity to the country. How would you unify the state institutions which you have mentioned there have been two parallel institutions in the past. How would you face the challenges of also the centralization of power as it has developed in Tripoli. How would you devolve the institutions based in Tripoli to other parts of Libya. As I understand that you know there's deep grievances throughout the country about too much power being centralized just within Tripoli. So I was wondering how you would address those kind of issues. I think our current situation now is better than one year ago. I think the situation in this month in October 2021 is better than October 2020. It was a total polarization, an open war and obstructed movement from the east and the west and we in the west we cannot go to the south for example. But now there is an air movement planes are flying from Benghazi to Tripoli and vice versa and also roads are opened to the south and to the east and to the west. So the general opinion or the general feeling is different also and people have better vision. We suffer from bad media. We don't have national patriotic media. All the Arab speaking or Arabic speaking media or the Libyan speaking media is being used and manipulated by external forces and external countries and this is not serving Libyans. But after the end of the war and the success and the breakthrough of the five plus five committee and here I would like to thank the UN and the USA and Mr. Norton. His Excellency has done a lot to convince countries of Berlin one and Berlin two conferences and this is a restored trust between the east and the west and now we have a clear vision and this is a propitious environment for unification of institutions. We know that the concentration of power in Tripoli has been detrimental not only to the east or to Sabha or Tobruk but also to Tripoli, detrimental to Tripoli itself and in Tripoli we notice that authorities from 69 until today has given importance to Tripoli or centered power to in Tripoli but we should not accept that power is concentrated in one city or even in the capital. We have to support and empower local authorities and adopt decentralization or decentralized government that empowers subnational bodies in order to empower governance and municipalities and to have more budget and encourage them to and equip them with tools and resources. So that they can live taxes, collect resources and the start infrastructure projects in their communities and their regions we know that regions differ from one place to the other in Libya so that has to be geographically specific and this can only reassure Libyans. Let me tell you something, nine years ago I went to an area called Zalla in Libya and it's just oil fields, all of it is oil fields. So when I saw this area I was really sad because it was very, it was very harmed by the industry by the oil industry so why don't we use some of the money we get from this industry to revitalize and to give back to these areas to these communities. What we are seeing now is that there is a migration because of this phenomenon because of pollution and because of the bad impact of industry so we have to fight this and urge people to go and to live in the south and to live in all regions. I hope I did, I covered all the points of questions you raised sir. Thank you. Thank you. You have covered a fair amount of them for sure. I'm going to try to keep picking up on some of the things you've raised though one of them was migration. And in light of recent events in which migrants in Tripoli were arrested and human rights organizations accused authorities of human right violations. What should be the new elected governments approach to the issues surrounding the migration file. As we know this is an issue which is somewhat related to political and economic marginalization, especially in the southern Faizan region. So how would you deal with those things. I will end. First of all, I think this is a very important point and the government should consider that this is a priority during its first days. There should be a program to secure the southern borders, southern borders of more than 4000 kilometers. And we have projects that are ready actually or plans that are ready to launch projects to secure the 4000 kilometers. I think it requires four billion as a budget and it needs to stretch or to last for four to five years. But this is very important. This is a crucial to make Libya clean from terrorism and to organize crime. In addition to that, we have to launch development projects, industrial zones and commercial zones in Sabha in the south. Also build roads between Sabha and Nazar and other Sub-Saharan countries to create a hub and economic hub in the region. Libya has more than 50 airports and terminals and these we have to capitalize on these airports and terminals to boost economy and commerce and to link between Africa and Europe and even North America and South America. So Libya is in a very privileged position and we are as if we are in the center of the world. We go to the extreme east and we can go also to the extreme west with the same period of time. And this can generate millions of jobs not only for Libyans but also for our neighbors and neighboring countries and I think reducing their problems or dealing with their problems will have a good impact on us and on Europeans. In Libya we have good infrastructure, we have hotels, we have farms, we have all the needed infrastructure but we just need to restore it. Maybe we need international partners that can work with us on restoration and rehabilitation so that we generate opportunities for Libyans and also for Africans. Libya has banks in Africa also. We have a lot of capital that needs to be invested in Africa in order to alleviate the suffering of our African brothers and sisters. And we have more than 800,000 African nationals currently in Libya and we have worked a lot in the Ministry of Interior in the past in order to keep them in Libya and not to allow them to cross the Mediterranean because it's a very perilous journey indeed. Oh great, just a couple more questions and I'm going to open it to the audience but since you raised the issue of Libya farm relations, I wanted to stick with that for a moment and ask you that Libya signed the GNU and before that the GNA had signed several different agreements with foreign countries with implications on regional affairs including the maritime boundaries with Turkey. In 2018 Libya signed an MOU with China to bring China's Belt and Road Relations with Libya as well as there's the issue of foreign fighters that remain in Libya. So I wonder if you could briefly talk about what you would do to ensure the withdrawal of farm fighters and what you envisioned that would be the priorities of the new president and government and as well as how well will the government uphold previously signed agreements. Regarding these agreements and memoranda, if you mean the government of national unity, there are many agreements actually but these agreements are just memoranda of understandings and they were just political or of a political nature. However, what we are interested in is a sustainable and solid partnership that is based on mutual interest. It should not be an agreement of a political nature to increase the time or the period of this government or that government and this cannot be sustainable actually. The salaries of Libyans for example are very, are not very, are not high at all. I think they are just 50 billion Libyan dinars and if we convert this to the dollar, it will be an insignificant amount. Amount of money. So how can we meet the terms of these agreements with billions of dinars? I think this cannot stand and partnerships or agreements should be based on mutual interest on sustainable investments in the future. And our relations with, should be fine, should be based on mutual interest with all countries and regarding the forces or the fighters that are on the Libyan territories or Libyan soil. As I told you, Libya wants to invest, wants to restore its economy and we cannot do that with the presence of these fighters on the Libyan territory. We cannot think of economy, we cannot think business while we have these fighters or forces on the ground. It's just impossible, mathematically speaking. Great, thank you for that. So I had, I have a question about armed groups, but I also want to start taking questions from the audience as well. I'm going to kind of marry some of these together and pose them to you. Dr. Abdel bin Anran from the Institute of International and Strategic Studies in Paris asks this question, Mr. Fatih, what is the vision that you see regarding armed groups, how to build security institutions with the presence of armed groups, including radical ones, and how to promote a national reconciliation in such a situation. So this whole issue of how would you dismantle militias, how would you unify the army as well as you approach this security issue? So when we first witnessed COVID-19 epidemic, some countries are allowed according to their laws, people have the permit to buy weapons. Why? Because when people are afraid, they go to buy weapons in these countries and they can even store weapons. So when we first, when the epidemic started in many countries, specifically these countries, witnessed really economic crumbling or a drop. So their people bought weapons. That's why a huge amount of weapons were smuggled to Libya. And people now, they are keeping their weapons in Libya. Why? Because they do not have a clear economic vision in Libya. People do not have liquidity. The exchange rates are really, really high. People are afraid of the future. They're afraid of their stores and their economies. So they keep their weapons at home. People still have weapons. Even they are peaceful ones. That's why instead of telling people, give back your weapons, we can provide them with other alternatives, like thinking of real economic growth plans and how also to reconcile the relationship between a security agent and the citizens. How we can encourage the security institutions or the entire security apparatus to work effectively in the country. Secondly, how can we give trust or how can we interest our youth? Maybe many of them can be recruited to our security institution or to the defense institution. Of course, according to training norms and standards or even in full compliance with international standards. Secondly, the state should start and this is what we already started two years ago in collaboration with the UK. Now to build factories and how to have small factories about the weapons, finger prints and to give permits for people to have one or two types of weapons. And all the other weapons should be given back to the state and how we can train our youth to join the security apparatus or defense apparatus. Thirdly, instead of focusing more on security, maybe when we provide people with alternatives of economic prosperity, economic growth, they will no longer think of joining armed groups or militias. Thirdly, people when they have a daily sustenance, when they have economic and social stability will no longer think or need to keep their weapons home or to use even weapons. So it's not about collecting weapons, but how we can direct our youth, our communities to some projects through which they can revitalize their formal lives. Thank you for addressing that. I'm going to try to put together. Chris Blanchard of the Congressional Research Service asked what do you believe is the proper powers of a president in the legislature. And are elections in the absence of an agreed constitutional arrangement, likely to result in institutional clashes. Pamid Awadah asks what are the authorities of the next president, if we said that the elections actually will happen. So there's this question about what is presidential power, what do you see as the, the, the positive side, where do you see the limitations on presidential power in particular, and in particular in relationship to the legislature. So can you repeat the question what are the powers, prerogatives of the president or what are the criteria of the president. This is a question related to the powers of the presidency. And as we said, this will be the first elected president. What is your vision, the extent of the powers of the president and what limitations do you see being on the powers. And I might also throw in one more part to that, which somebody had also asked, I think from from one of the media is asked about your vision with respect for freedom of expression, and respect for private media. So again, it's the issues of what are the, how do you envision the powers of the presidency. And what do you envision as it's in that relationship to the legislature as well. Okay. Okay. So about the powers, legislative powers or the general powers that issue any president or a future president should have. I think that next president should be a representative one who represents the Libyans, internally and internationally. The president is the supreme leader of armada forces, the supreme commander of the armada forces. The president is the one who appoints the prime minister and to be added by the parliament. The president should have the intelligence and the president should declare the state of emergency after the approval of the parliament. I think these are the main powers of the president we hope to have in the future. In addition to that, at the social or ethical level, I think the president should be like a father for the family should believe in all the projects that can lead to the prosperity, social, economic, cultural prosperity of Libya. Also, the president should believe in the citizenship, the main principle of citizenship. In addition to that, the next president should be a courageous, audacious one who can make really difficult decision. Also, the president should be the one who will welcome all internationally and internationally. The next president should be an investor, should be a consensual person between all the contentious parts in Libya. Of course, we cannot rely solely on the president but rely on the president and the other state institutions and our international partners and friends. Thank you. That was a very concise answer for people for a difficult question in a way. I'm going to marry these two questions together where a question that says, let's see if I can find this for you here. So there's a question of saying a concern about this issue of bringing unity to the country. So this one question from Nabil says, when you become president, will you recognize the rights and identity of those in the eastern region? And what are the steps that you will take to do this? And also, this is applicable to place other places which have faced historical marginalization, such as in the south. I think it is more than a principle, more than a goal. I think it is the ultimate goal of any future president. I believe or I think that the Libyan president should be the president of all ethnicities, minorities in the east and in the south. We cannot talk about the president while having people not exercising their rights, not enjoying all of their innate rights including social justice and fair economic opportunities. Thank you. One final question and then I'm going to ask for your final remarks. Rachel Arnold writes, how will the government of Libya continue to improve the electoral process to ensure that all persons with disabilities have a voice in this important decision making opportunity? I think this is a very important question because the people with special needs back in the time of Gaddafi were taken care of but then after that they were neglected. Now the state does not pay any attention to these people and families with disabled people or children are suffering and are going through a hard time and people with special needs and with disabilities do not enjoy any facilities or any ease of access whether in state institutions, buildings or venues or premises that ease. So they suffer a lot to even have access to these premises. So they as I said they are utterly neglected and ignored to their needs and they suffer from the tender age until their adulthood and I think their number in Libya amounts to 600,000 more or less. And for those who have a dire disabilities they are 100,000. I met with groups representing them and they said or they told me that they need reforms at the legislative level but also at the infrastructure. And the Libyan state should assume its responsibility to provide them with insurance and with the due care they deserve similar to what happens in other countries and they also should enjoy a pension or financial bonus that may be derived from oil revenues so that they can sustain themselves. But this has to be, has to start with legislative reforms first. And there is a law, Libya currently exists in Libya that states or stipulates that each Libyan institution should employ or hire at least 5% people with disabilities. So I will work, if elected I will work to enforce this law and reform the legislation so that the Libyan state meets the requirement of the needs of the disabled and we alleviate the suffering. We don't have even special schools for this category. They go to Egypt or Jordan and this is very costly, very expensive. They cannot continue or finish their studies and this is a disaster for Libya for a state that is rich like Libya. Thank you. Well, Mr. Pashaga, I want to thank you on behalf of USIP and the audience that joined us today for your forthright answers for your willingness to provide us with your thoughts with regard to what you would do if you are elected president. We wish you the best in the election. And we want to thank you just once again for joining us today. I also want to thank those who have helped support the program today, Nate Wilson, our country manager for Libya, Ezra Abakush, who also works for us, the AB team and of course, Hansa who helps us interpret so well. And for the audience, I invite you to look forward to future episodes in this series in which we will be talking with other potential leaders of the future of Libya. So for everybody, again, thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Pashaga, and I wish everybody a good day. Thank you very much.