(Tripoli) The strongman of eastern Libya Khalifa Haftar called on Friday for the establishment of a new government of technocrats in charge of organizing elections supposed to put an end to the division of the country.
This appeal by Marshal Haftar comes after an agreement reached on June 7 between representatives of the rival camps on the legal framework for these elections which the UN hopes to see held before the end of the year.
This “agreement” was announced after talks in Morocco between the members of a commission formed by the Parliament sitting in eastern Libya, and the High Council of State (HCE) which acts as the Senate. based in Tripoli (west).
Two governments have been vying for power for more than one in Libya: one installed in Tripoli and led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah, the other in the East, supported by the powerful Marshal Haftar, leader of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army ( ANL).
In a statement released on Friday, the LNA command urged the rival chambers of East and West to “end political divisions and form a new unified government of technocrats to organize elections in the whole country”.
Presidential and legislative elections, originally scheduled for December 2021, have been postponed indefinitely due to differences between rival camps in a country plagued by chaos since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.
In February, the head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (Manul) Abdoulaye Bathily had urged the two camps to find an agreement, before mid-June, on the organization of the elections with the hope of hold at the end of 2023.
In its statement, the Haftar camp called on the UN to “support any agreement likely to lead to the holding of well-organized and transparent elections”.
Manul had “taken note” on June 8 of the agreement on the electoral framework concluded in Morocco, while announcing that it would work to remove points of contention.
In a statement on Friday, Manul said that Mr. Bathily had spoken in recent days with key players in Libya as well as with diplomats to “listen to their analysis and discuss ways to move forward”.
Mr. Bathily noted that the agreement reached in Morocco contained “positive elements” while emphasizing that some of his interlocutors had told him of their “concerns about certain provisions (of the agreement) likely to hinder the holding elections”.