TRIPOLI: The United Nations’ Representative to Libya on Thursday urged the country’s main powerbrokers to appoint representatives for a meeting aimed at reaching an election settlement, part of a new effort for a national election.
According to Reuters, efforts to bring Libya’s rival parties to conduct an election have been the main focus of diplomacy for several years, but there has been a very little progress towards election since a 2020 truce that paused most major warfare in the African country.
The Ambassador, Abdulaye Bathily, said that the major groups should move to a new phase to deliver elections, adding they must identify what problems should be resolved to start the election process.
Probable attendees include Presidency Council and High State Council (HSC), the Government of National Unity (GNU), all based in Tripoli, and the House of Representatives and Libyan National Army, they in Benghazi in the east.
UN Libya Representative Pushes for Meeting on Polls
Libya has had little stability since a 2011 NATO-sponsored uprising, and split in 2014 between western factions in Tripoli and eastern factions in Benghazi, with rival governments governing in each region.
Last month the speaker the House of Representatives, which is Libya’s world recognized parliament, issued new laws and regulations to permit an election to move forward, though these were not acknowledged by other areas of the political system.
The last main push to conduct an election, in December 2021, collapsed at the last minute due to disputes over the laws and rules. Libya’s last poll was held in 2014. One main obstacle now is disagreement among Libya’s rival factions over whether or not a new government should be installed to oversee the process of elections. The GNU has rejected to step down until after polls.
While all major political parties in the African nation have repeatedly called for elections while Washington and London also issued a joint statement backing the process of elections.
