UN Envoy to Libya Calls for Agreement on Elections

UN Special Representative for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Abdoulaye Bathily

Africa News

The UN envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, called on Saturday for the rival administrations in the country to reach an agreement by mid-June and hold long-delayed elections by the end of the year.

Libya remains split between a nominally interim government in Tripoli in the west, and another in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

Since the 2011 United States and NATO-backed counter-revolution against the former government of Col. Muammar Gaddafi, a veteran statesman and Pan-Africanist, the once most prosperous country in Africa has become a source for instability throughout North and West Africa.

"By mid-June, it would be possible for them, after having sat for a few weeks, to come to an agreement on those electoral laws" (...) "Give them to HNEC (High National Elections Commission, Ed.), which will be on the basis of this… to put up a clear roadmap, because the roadmap, it is not up to me to design it", said UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily on Saturday during a press conference in Tripoli. 

The head of the Tripoli government, Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah, expressed his support for the UN envoy's efforts calling for "fair and impartial elections".

"And from what we know, it would be possible, if the electoral laws are put in place in mid-June, by the end of the year, to have these elections to take place", concluded the UN envoy.

The UN initiative has been backed by Western powers but is criticised by the administration supported by Haftar in the east, as well as by Russia, which supports it.

A key factor in the stalemate is the fact that Hafter is a US citizen. His rivals want rules that ban the candidacy of dual citizens and military figures.