WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2018) Libya should cast election votes in the spring of next year following the Libyan National Conference instead of originally scheduled for December 2018, Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya Ghassan Salame told the Security Council.
"The national conference is to be held in the first weeks of 2019. The subsequent electoral process should commerce in the spring of 2019," Salame said on Thursday.
Salame added that the national conference is the best way forward. The envoy said the conference will be Libyan-led and will give a platform to the people of the country who should "no longer be ignored by the politicians."
Salame said recent polls showed that 80 percent of Libyan citizens want to hold a national vote as soon as possible.
The next international conference on Libya is set for November 12-13 and will take place in the Italian city of Palermo. Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar has already confirmed his participation in the event. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, have been invited, but the Kremlin announced last week that the Russian president was not scheduled to attend the conference.
Libya has been torn apart by conflict since its long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011. The eastern part of the country is governed by the parliament, backed by the Libyan National Army (LNA) and located in Tobruk. The UN-backed GNA is headed by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj.
