News & Events

Libya’s High Council of State voted on Thursday for a constitutional amendment intended to provide a basis for elections, but experts say the changes fail to address disagreements standing in the way of a long-delayed national vote.

A new push to convince chaos-stricken Libya’s rival factions to hold presidential and legislative elections this year was announced by the top United Nations diplomat in the country on Monday, but any optimism was dampened by a lack of details and continued disputes.

The U.N. Libya envoy will launch a new initiative to enable elections this year with the formation of a high-level steering committee, he said on Monday, attempting to break a year-long stalemate that has risked renewed conflict.

The Official Spokesperson for the Libyan House of Representatives reported at the end of yesterday’s session that the 13th Constitutional Amendment had been approved. The 13th amendment sets out the roles of the president, prime minister and parliament and a constitutional path to elections.

The “5+5” military committee of officers from both main sides of the civil war has agreed on a coordination mechanism for the withdrawal of foreign forces in liaison with neighbouring Sudan and Niger.

The United Nations Envoy to Libya said alternative mechanisms might have to be used if rival sides cannot find a solution to the country’s political crisis.

As two would-be prime ministers vie for control, the prospects of a diplomatic breakthrough are bleak.

Libya’s prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, has made an unexpected alliance with his former enemy, the eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar, in a bid to cement a fragile ceasefire and end a months-long oil blockade.