UN: Hard to hold Libya elections in December

The UN envoy to Libya said that it will be difficult to hold elections as hoped on December 10, following a new wave of fighting in the North African nation.

“There is still a lot to do. It may not be possible to respect the date of December 10,” Gassan Salame said in an interview. Rival Libyan leaders agreed to a Parisbrokered deal in May to hold a nationwide poll by the end of the year.

But Salame said that polls may not be organised before “three or four months”.

“We can hold elections in the near future, yes. But certainly not now,” he added in the interview on Saturday evening at the highly fortified UN mission in Tripoli.

Militia clashes in Tripoli’s

The UN envoy to Libya Gassan Salame said that polls may not be organised before “three or four months.”

suburbs have left more than 100 people dead since late August. Libya remains divided between the UNbacked Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east.

Rivals sit together

The GNA was set up under a 2015 UN-brokered deal that raised hopes of an easing of the chaos that followed the 2011 Nato-backed revolution which ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The Paris meeting brought together for the first time GNA head Fayaz Al Sarraj and military strongman Khalifa Haftar, whose self-styled Libyan National Army dominates the east.

Also present were Aguila Saleh Eisa, the parliament speaker based in the eastern city of Tobruk, and Khalid Al Mishri, head of the High Council of State. The Paris agreement included a September 16 deadline to come up with an electoral law, forming the “constitutional base” for a vote later in the year.