Will elections in Libya bring peace to the divided country?

‘Ambitious, and potentially unrealistic’
timetable agreed for first parliamentary vote since fall of
Gaddafi

One-Minute Read

The declaration agreed yesterday would create a political
framework to pave the way for UN-backed parliamentary and
presidential elections later this year, bringing to an end the
country’s brutal civil war.

Libya has been in turmoil since the Nato-backed toppling of
Gaddafi in 2011 at the height of the Arab Spring, and since 2014
has been divided between competing political and militia groups
based in the capital Tripoli and the east.

The International Conference on Libya aimed at agreeing the
framework for a lasting peace was held at the Elysee Palace in
Paris. It was attended by the powerful eastern-based commander
Khalifa Haftar, Tripoli Prime Minister Fayez Seraj, and the leaders
of rival parliamentary assemblies as well as the UN envoy to Libya,
Ghassan Salame, French President Emmanuel Macron, and
representatives from Libya’s neighbours, international powers and
organisations.

France24 says “many analysts are sceptical that
the initiative to invite four senior figures representing Libya’s
factions, as well as neighbouring countries and regional powers,
can lead to significant progress” and called the peace conference a
“risky French-backed push for a political settlement in the
country”.

Past attempts at peace deals in Libya “have often been scuttled
by internal divisions among the country’s armed groups and by the
different countries backing the local actors”, Reuters says.

This time round appears to be different however, with all
parties agreeing to a declaration which calls for the immediate
unification of the central bank and the phasing out of parallel
government institutions.

It also makes a commitment to support the creation of a national
army and, most crucially, a commitment “to set the constitutional
basis for elections and adopt the necessary electoral laws by
September 16, 2018 and hold Parliamentary and Presidential
elections on December 10, 2018”, the joint-statement said.

The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick
Wintour described the plan to stage “credible and peaceful”
parliamentary and legislative elections in the country on 10
December, as “ambitious, and potentially unrealistic”.

Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed was more
optimistic, saying that the elections in Libya could be part of a
long-term solution, however, he added the process still has “a long
way to go” as many of Haftar’s opponents and other strong key
players in Libya were not included in the talks.