UN calls for elections in Libya by end of 2018

Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of UN Support Mission in Libya Ghassan Salame said Wednesday that the mission is working on holding elections in Libya before the end of 2018.

Salame made his remarks in a meeting with representatives of tribes, civil society, academics and activists in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

The mission proposed an action plan for Libya in September that includes amendment of the current UN-sponsored political agreement, holding a UN-sponsored national conference for all of Libya’s political factions, adopting a constitution, and finally election of a president and a parliament.

Representatives of Libya’s eastern-based House of Representatives and the Tripoli-based Higher Council of State have recently held UN-sponsored negotiation meetings in Tunisia to amend the agreement.

Libya has been struggling to make a democratic transition ever since the uprising of 2011 that toppled former leader Gaddafi’s regime. The country is plagued with political division and unrest.