On Saturday, the Acting United Nations Special Envoy for Libya, Stephanie Williams, announced that the participants in the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum decided to hold the national elections on a constitutional basis on December 24, 2021.
In a statement, Williams said the political talks on Libya’s future have reached agreement on holding elections within 18 months. She hailed the “breakthrough” in a peace-making process that still faces great obstacles.
She added that the new government would have to quickly address deteriorating public services and corruption, two issues that prompted protests on both sides of the frontlines this summer.
75 Libyan participants chosen by the United Nations have been meeting in Tunisia since Monday.
Williams said the meeting has reached preliminary agreement on a roadmap to “free, fair, inclusive and credible parliamentary and presidential elections” that also includes steps to unite institutions.
The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which is helping to facilitate the talks, said the new government would not need a vote of confidence from Libya's House of Representatives.
The HoR, elected in 2014, is based in Libya's east and allied with military commander Khalifa Haftar, who launched an offensive in April 2019 to seize the capital Tripoli from a UN-recognised unity government.
Pro-unity government forces ended a bloody months-long stalemate in June by pushing Haftar's forces back eastwards.
The two sides signed a landmark ceasefire deal in October, setting the scene for renewed diplomatic efforts for a political settlement to the long-running conflict.
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