UN makes holding elections top priority in Libya

18 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, urged the leaders this Friday to put an end to the political impasse in Libya and considers the holding of the elections as “the only credible path for a legitimate and unified government”, all in a High Level Committee of the African Union in Addis Ababa.

“There is no alternative to the elections. They continue to be the only credible path towards legitimate and unified governance,” Guterres said at the meeting in the Ethiopian capital and stated that they only have one goal: “guarantee the right of the Libyan people to live in peace; vote in free and fair elections; and share in the prosperity of your country,” he added.

In December 2021, Libya was on the verge of holding unprecedented presidential and parliamentary elections, but several internal disputes forced their cancellation.

“The absence of elections worsens economic insecurity, increases political instability, risks renewed conflicts and raises the specter of divisions,” Guterres added.

As reported by Guterres, a special representative of the United Nations has committed the Libyan parties and international partners to agree on a constitutional basis for the elections at the end of February.

On the other hand, the Secretary General has praised the advances in security, with the 2020 ceasefire agreement still in force, and sets the complete withdrawal of foreign fighters and mercenaries from Libya as the next priority of the Joint Military Commission, as this external interference would have worsened the conflict.

Regarding migration, Guterres has denounced the situation of asylum seekers and the thousands of people who try to cross the Mediterranean who are returned to Libya and detained in precarious conditions.

According to a United Nations report carried out at the end of January on the situation of Human Rights in Libya, the situation in the country is critical with reports of extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, human trafficking, internal displacements and the existence of mass burials.

Following the 2011 overthrow of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who would have ruled Libya for more than 40 years, the country has been plagued by several crises and the rule of two rival administrations: a UN-recognized executive headquartered in the capital of Tripoli and the so-called Libyan National Army, whose base is in the east of the country.