News & Events

Efforts to bring together Libya’s rival factions to hold an election have been the main focus of diplomacy for years, but there has been little progress towards a vote since a 2020 ceasefire.

The Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives, Aqila Saleh, met with the UN envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, on Sunday to discuss the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections and the formation of a unified government.

As Moscow tightens its grip on the eastern regions of Libya, it has triggered new geopolitical tremors within the wider North Africa region, parts of the Mediterranean and even further west, across the Atlantic.

The President of Libya’s High Council of State and the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Tobruk agreed Wednesday to continue consultations on the country’s political crisis.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya said on Thursday that it had completed an initial technical review of the “Presidential Election Law no. 28/2023 and Parliamentary Election Law no. 27/2023”, which were received from the Speaker of the House of Representatives on 5 October.

The Tripoli-based High Council of State has rejected new election laws, stating it only approves outcomes from talks held in Morocco in June, which are “unanimous and binding to both councils.”

Libya takes a key step towards political stability. The House of Representatives unanimously approved the enactment of the law to elect the president of the state and the law to elect the National Assembly.

After calling for elections in Libya ahead of government unification for years, the United Nations now says unification should come before voting.