Libyan talks in Geneva reach agreement on selection mechanism for temporary executive authority
Jan 17, 2021
Geneva (Switzerland), January 17: A senior UN official announced here Saturday that the Libyan delegations reached an agreement on a recommended selection mechanism for a new temporary executive authority.
Stephanie Turco Williams, Acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), told a press conference that the selection mechanism will be provided for voting next Monday.
The 18 members of the newly established Libyan Political Dialogue Forum's Advisory Committee met here at UN's Geneva headquarters from Jan. 13-16, in an effort to overcome the deadlock on the mechanism for the selection mechanism for the country's temporary executive authority.
"I believe this decision reached today is the best possible compromise, as this proposal respects the regional dimension, and it indeed encourages people to work across the divide and across regions, in order to strengthen understanding and to build unity in the country," Williams said at Saturday's press conference.
She told reporters that on Jan. 18, UNSMIL will call upon the Libyan Political Dialogue members to vote on the proposed mechanism. The vote will be conducted over a 24-hour period, and the result will be announced on Jan. 19.
The UN official also stressed that after the forming of the temporary executive authority, general elections will be held in the country on Dec. 24 this year, and the executive authority will be replaced by a permanent, democratically elected government.
Libya's eastern-based army and its UN-backed government fought for more than a year in and around the capital Tripoli before the conflicts ended last June. On Oct. 23, 2020, Libyan delegations in Geneva signed a UN-sponsored permanent ceasefire agreement.
At a meeting held last November in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, 75 representatives of the social and political spectrum of the Libyan society agreed to hold general elections in the country on Dec. 24, 2021.
Source: Xinhua
