Libya sees free elections as solution to domestic crisis

The Libyan National Army (LNA) commander, Field-Marshal Khalifa Haftar, has said the political crisis in Libya can be solved through general parliamentary and presidential elections without any preconditions for the candidates and obstacles to their organisation.

"The true solution to the Libyan issue is to hold elections without conditions and obstacles. The time has come to take real steps to address the issue of a fair distribution of oil revenues among all Libyan regions," local media outlet Asharq TV quotes Haftar as saying, TASS reports.

Haftar is convinced that "the country needs to form a supreme financial committee, which will manage the state's funds in a fair manner".

Meanwhile, Khaled Al-Mishri, chairman of Libya's High Council of State, said last night that parliamentary and presidential elections should be held in Libya no later than mid-March next year.

He promised that the High State Council and parliament "will publish this week a roadmap for the organisation of the elections, on the basis of which a new government should be formed and laws for the upcoming elections should be determined".

At the end of May, a joint six-plus-six committee comprising representatives of the High Council of State and the House of Representatives (parliament) reached a consensus on the timing of the general elections.

At the time, the committee said parliamentary elections would be held in December this year and presidential elections in January 2024. However, the Libyan election committee then demanded that some more changes be made to the version prepared by the committee, which was not anticipated before it started its work.

In Libya, there are effectively two governments: a cabinet in the east, formed by the parliament, and a Government of National Unity headquartered in Tripoli.

On June 22 last year, the transitional period set by the UN as a result of the Geneva Accords expired, by the end of which Libya should have an elected president and parliament. Elections scheduled for December 2021 were cancelled due to the lack of the necessary constitutional framework.