Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Abdoulaye Bathily has told Security Council members that there is a need to apply international pressure on the country’s political leaders to secure elections.
Bathily, during his third briefing on Friday, did not seem optimistic about resolving the crisis. “The country is exposed to further division, in light of the presence of two governments and two central banks, the absence of consensual agreement on the constitution, and the increasing resentment in the country due to the inequality in the distribution of oil revenues. We need to think creatively about ways to ensure free, fair, transparent, and simultaneous Presidential and Parliamentary elections are organized,” Bathily noted.
The UN Envoy stressed the need to hold individuals and entities acting or supporting acts that prevent or undermine the holding of elections accountable.
The Speaker of the Libyan Parliament, Ageela Saleh, and the Chairman of the High Council of State (HCS) Khaled Al-Mishri were due to meet under UN auspices, in the city of Zintan, on 4 December.
The purpose of this meeting was to set in motion a process for the holding of elections, including the finalization of the constitutional basis. He explained that “for logistical reasons beyond our control, this important meeting for the resumption of the political dialogue between the Parliament and the HCS cannot take place in Zintan.”
Bathily further urged the two parties to agree on a mutually acceptable location and date for their meeting. He noted that they should come up with “concrete, implementable, and time-bound proposals for a consensual way out of this crisis.”
He called on all Libyan citizens, as well as public institutions, including the Presidential Council, Judiciary, and Security Institutions, to make their voices and concerns heard through democratic and transparent procedures in a concerted effort to end the current deadlock.
Libya has been in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime leader Muammar Gadaffi in 2011. The county has for years been split between rival administrations, each backed by rogue militias and foreign governments.
The current stalemate grew out of the failure to hold elections in December, and the refusal of Prime Minister Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba, who led the transitional government, to step down. In response, the country’s eastern-based Parliament appointed a rival Prime Minister, Fathi Bashagha, who has for months sought to install his government in Tripoli.