HoR calls for presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya in early 2018

BY Libyan Express Mar 09, 2017 - 16:11

Libya’s Tobruk-based House of Representatives has called for elections to be held in February 2018, after it backed out of a United Nations-brokered peace deal with rival authorities in the capital, Tripoli.

The widening split has stoked concerns that violence could escalate in the fractured country.

In an open letter to the Libyan electoral commission released late on Tuesday, the Tobruk-based House of Representatives requested the national election commission make “all the necessary arrangements to prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections before February 2018,” citing Libya’s ongoing “difficult situation” and “political struggle.”

The body earlier voted to withdraw its support for the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord, a decision that comes days after Benghazi Defence Brigades had seized control of oil ports and later handed them over to the Petroleum Facilities Guard of the Presidential Council.

The country has been split into two competing parliaments and governments, each backed by a set of militias, tribes and political factions.

The internationally-recognised government based in the capital Tripoli opposes Haftar and so does he.

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