UN hopes for Libya elections 'by end of 2018'
UN said electoral law still needs to be adopted and the security situation is not ready
Emad Al-Sayeh, Head of the High National Election Commission, gestures during a news conference with Ghassan Salame, U.N. Special Representative for Libya, in Tripoli, Libya, December 6, 2017 PHOTO: REUTERS
TRIPOLI, LIBYA:
UN envoy Ghassan Salame said Wednesday he hoped for elections in Libya by the end of 2018 but that conditions in the strife-torn country were not yet ready for polling.
"There are several conditions. For the time being, we have only achieved one: the start of voter registration," the UN envoy for Libya told a news conference in Tripoli.
Seven suspected people smugglers held after Libya incident
Last September, Salame submitted an action plan to stabilise Libya centred on holding legislative and presidential elections this year.
"All the conditions have not been met," he said, stressing an electoral law still needed to be adopted and the security situation was not ready.
"The most important thing is to secure the acceptance of all parties of the election results" ahead of polling, which he hoped could be held "by the end of 2018".
90 migrants, mostly Pakistanis, believed dead in shipwreck off Libya
Salame played down the prospects of a disarmament programme, estimating at 20 million the number of weapons in the hands of Libya's six million population.
A 2015 UN-brokered deal that saw the establishment of a Government of National Accord was meant to calm years of chaos that followed the ouster of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
But Libya has remained mired in violent turmoil as the country is riven by divisions between the GNA in Tripoli and a rival administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east.
UN envoy Ghassan Salame said Wednesday he hoped for elections in Libya by the end of 2018 but that conditions in the strife-torn country were not yet ready for polling.
"There are several conditions. For the time being, we have only achieved one: the start of voter registration," the UN envoy for Libya told a news conference in Tripoli.
Seven suspected people smugglers held after Libya incident
Last September, Salame submitted an action plan to stabilise Libya centred on holding legislative and presidential elections this year.
"All the conditions have not been met," he said, stressing an electoral law still needed to be adopted and the security situation was not ready.
"The most important thing is to secure the acceptance of all parties of the election results" ahead of polling, which he hoped could be held "by the end of 2018".
90 migrants, mostly Pakistanis, believed dead in shipwreck off Libya
Salame played down the prospects of a disarmament programme, estimating at 20 million the number of weapons in the hands of Libya's six million population.
A 2015 UN-brokered deal that saw the establishment of a Government of National Accord was meant to calm years of chaos that followed the ouster of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
But Libya has remained mired in violent turmoil as the country is riven by divisions between the GNA in Tripoli and a rival administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east.