CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th March, 2023) The roadmap for elections in Libya, which have not taken place since the appointment of the transitional government under the auspices of the United Nations in 2021, could be developed by mid-June, Abdoulaye Bathily, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Libya, said on Saturday.
Earlier in March, the head of Libya's Government of National Unity (GNU), Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, appealed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres with a request to provide technical assistance in holding general election in the country.
"There is no reason to delay the elections further, taking into account the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan. With goodwill and determination, a clear roadmap for elections might be developed by mid-June," Bathily said during a press conference in Tripoli.
He added that if the relevant laws are adopted, the elections may take place in late 2023.
Libya has been in turmoil since a NATO invasion helped topple Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. His death led to a decade-long rivalry between the UN-backed administration in Tripoli and the parliament in Tobruk. The UN-brokered reconciliation process put a caretaker unity government in charge in 2021, but the interim authorities failed to hold elections and the chaos continued.
In February 2022, the parliament sitting in the east of Libya voted for the candidacy of former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha for the post of prime minister. In May, Bashagha, after an unsuccessful attempt to locate the cabinet in Tripoli, announced that the government would start working in the Libyan city of Sirte.
