Libya has little chance of holding elections this year – Fathi Bashagha – The North Africa Post

Fathi Bashagha, one of Libya’s rival Prime Ministers, has said that the oil-rich African country has little chance of holding elections this year.

Without a unified government “there will be no elections and chaos will continue”, he told Bloomberg in an interview.

Fathi Bashagha, who is engaged in a stand-off over the premiership with Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, predicted the political upheaval would continue throughout 2022, deepening a rift in the North African nation’s fragile institutions.

These statements raise the prospect of further uncertainty for the OPEC member’s oil industry at a time when the market is in urgent need of its crude.

However, the former interior minister downplayed any possibility of civil war in a country trying to emerge after a decade of conflict.

He pledged to hold free and fair presidential and legislative elections “as soon as possible.”

The former Interior Minister has been appointed in February Prime Minister by Libya’s legislature House of Representatives (HoR) which removed Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh.

Dbeibeh has refused to resign, despite his ascendancy to power in March 2013. Dbeibeh vowed to organize elections, and to surrender power to an elected administration.

Monday’s announcement by UN showed that the third round of talks in Cairo between politicians representing the parliament in the east of Egypt and the High Council of State, Tripoli, did not result in an agreement.

Stephanie Williams, UN special adviser on Libya said that the rival parties ended talks that were meant to clear the way for elections but did not reach a breakthrough.

The talks, which stared on June 12, had sought to establish a constitutional framework for elections in Libya, but the two sides failed to agree on “the measures governing the transitional period” leading to the vote, Ms Williams said.

She called upon Aguila Saleh (the influential parliament speaker) and Khaled Al Mahshri (head of the Tripoli-based council) to meet within ten days to try and bridge the gap between the two sides.

Libyan media reports claimed the main topic of contention was the criteria to run for the presidency.

The Tripoli-based council insisted on banning military personnel from running for the country’s top post — apparently a move directed at warlord Khalifa Haftar.