Libya's presidency seeks consensus on election law

The head of Libya’s Presidency Council said on Saturday he would urge candidates in elections proposed for December not to take part unless there was consensus on the vote’s legal framework, reports Reuters.

Speaking to Reuters in New York, Mohamed al-Menfi said it was his goal to make sure the national presidential and parliamentary elections went ahead as planned on December 24.

However, he added: “Not having a proper vision towards this election, (not having) this kind of consensus, is by itself a risk”.

The elections were mandated as part of a roadmap drawn up last year by a political forum convened by the United Nations to end a decade-long crisis, but disputes over the vote threaten to unravel the peace process.

Libya has been racked by chaos and violence since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, and it was split after 2014 between warring western and eastern factions.

READ: Libya to hold October conference to garner support

Besides setting elections, the UN-backed roadmap produced a new transitional administration to take over from the rival governments that had emerged in Tripoli and the east during the civil war.

The roadmap installed a three-man Presidency Council drawn from Libya’s three regions and headed by Menfi to act as head of state, as well as a Government of National Unity (GNU) headed by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.

All sides in Libya and the foreign powers involved in the conflict say the elections must go ahead, but the UN-backed dialogue forum and Libya’s existing institutions have not agreed to a constitutional basis for the vote.