Libya Election Plan Faces Criticism from Benghazi MPs
Libya’s divided country has still yet to find a solution to begin presidential elections, despite the intervention of the UN. But even that has angered the elite of the eastern part of the country who usually don’t agree on deals made or statements written by the government in Tripoli.
Libya’s parliament hit back on February 28th at the UN envoy to the war-torn country, after he criticised its failure to agree a legal basis for elections and proposed a UN-led initiative.
The form and rules around elections have been key sticking points in Libya’s faltering peace process since the last major round of fighting in the North African country, torn apart by a decade of war.
The envoy, Senegalese diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily, had on the day before told the United Nations Security Council he planned to create a “high-level steering panel” to enable presidential and legislative elections to be held this year.
He noted that the eastern-based parliament and Libya’s High Council of State, based in Tripoli, had “not been able to agree on a consensual constitutional basis for elections”.
