CAIRO, Egypt
Libya’s presidential election, meant to help unify the nation after a decade of civil war, is supposed to take place in just over a week, but calls are mounting for a delay.
Either scenario — holding the vote on time or
postponing it — could turn into a destabilizing setback.
The vote, scheduled
for Dec. 24, is to choose Libya’s first president since the ouster and
killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi more than a decade ago.
For nearly a year, the election has been the
lynchpin of international efforts to bring peace to the oil-rich North African
nation, and supporters fear a dangerous void if it is not held on schedule.
But critics warn that going ahead with the vote
now could throw the country into new violence. They say Libya remains too
bitterly divided among armed factions that are likely to reject any victory by
rivals in the election. The presence of some of Libya’s most polarizing figures
in the race — including
one of Gadhafi’s sons — only makes it more explosive.
Nearly 100 people have announced their
candidacies, but the election commission has still not announced a final list
of candidates because of legal disputes. It should have announced the list
earlier this month. The rules governing the election are also in dispute, with
western Libya politicians accusing the east-based parliament of adopting them
without consultations.
Libya plunged into chaos after Gadhafi’s death
during a 2011 uprising backed by a U.S.-led NATO military campaign. Control
splintered among a myriad of armed militias. For years, the country was split
between rival administrations in the east and the west, each backed by militias
and foreign governments.
The current political process emerged last year
after the latest round of brutal fighting.
In April 2019, the
eastern-based military commander Khalifa Hifter launched an offensive
aimed at capturing the capital, Tripoli, and bringing down the U.N.-recognized
government based there. Hifter was backed by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab
Emirates. Turkey and Qatar responded by stepping up support for pro-Tripoli
militias, supplying them with advanced weapons and providing troops and Syrian
mercenaries.
After 14 months of fighting, Hifter’s offensive
collapsed. After a U.N.-brokered cease-fire in October 2020, a grouping of
Libyan factions called the Political Forum drew up a road map that led to the
creation of an interim government to run the country until the Dec. 24
election.
Those calling for a delay in the election say
the mistrust between east and west remains too deep and volatile. The interim
government has not been able to unify Libya’s institutions, particularly the
military, dismantle militias or ensure the exit of foreign
mercenaries and fighters, said one U.N. official.
“These issues should have been settled before
going to elections. They need more time and effort to be resolved,” he said,
speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the
press.
Tarek Mitri, a former U.N. envoy for Libya,
warned that “without unified military forces, the election poses a threat to
peace.”
“How can you win the argument in a democratic
election when guns are loaded to the hilt on both sides?” he said.
In a last-minute effort to save the elections,
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres named American
diplomat Stephanie Williams, who led the talks resulting in the
October 2020 cease-fire deal, as his special adviser on Libya.
Williams met with Libyan officials in Tripoli
on Sunday. She called for all sides to respect the “overwhelming demand of the
Libyan people to elect their representatives through a free, fair and credible
election.” She did not mention the Dec. 24 dateline in her public comments.
The
United States and some others in the international community want the
vote to go ahead. As he stepped down on Dec. 8, outgoing U.N. envoy Jan Kubis
said the election must take place on schedule, calling it “a critically
important step that opens doors to future solutions.”
The polarization around the election only grew
hotter after both Hifter and
Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son and one-time heir apparent of the longtime
dictator, announced their candidacies.
Hifter, touted in the east as a hero, is hated
by many in the west of the country.
“The entire western region will fight Hifter
... he will never rule Libya,” Islamist Khalid al-Mishri, head of the
Tripoli-based Supreme Council of State, said in televised comments last month.
Seif al-Islam’s bid raised cries of an
attempted return to the days of his father.
“Those who believe in the possibility of
Libya’s returning to the era of dictatorship after all these sacrifices are
delusional,” Abdel-Rahman el-Swahili, a lawmaker from Misrata, the western city
that was one of the leading forces in the rebellion against the elder Gadhafi.
The
prime minister of the interim government, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, also caused
an uproar when he announced his bid to enter the race. When he took his post,
he had vowed not to run in the election.
Many Libyans are skeptical.
“All (the factions) say publicly they want
elections, but in in fact, all worked against it,” said Ramadan al-Zawi, a
29-year-old teacher. “We are deceiving ourselves when we talk about elections
while we are still in such an unchanged situation since 2011.”
No comments:
Post a Comment