TRIPOLI (Reuters) -The U.N. Mission in Libya said on Friday its advisory committee finished its consultations and finalized a set of options to address contentious issues in Libya’s current electoral framework, adding that the Mission will start talks with Libyan stakeholders based on these options.
The Advisory Committee was formed by UNSMIL in February to propose ways to resolve the issues hindering the holding of long-awaited national elections.
“The Committee’s options will be a useful contribution towards securing political agreement for the holding of national elections and unifying state institutions, which are important steps to ending division and the cycle of transition,” the Mission said.
A political process to resolve more than a decade of conflict in Libya has been stalled since an election scheduled for December 2021 collapsed amid disputes over the eligibility of the main candidates.
Libya has had little peace since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising, and it split in 2014 between eastern and western factions, with rival administrations governing in each area.
A Tripoli-based Government of National Unity under Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah was installed through a U.N.-backed process in 2021 but the Benghazi-based House of Representatives no longer recognises its legitimacy.
Many Libyans have voiced scepticism that their political leaders are negotiating in good faith, believing them to be unwilling to bring forward elections that might remove them from their positions of power.
(Reporting by Ahmed Elumami in TripoliWriting by Yomna EhabEditing by Matthew Lewis)
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