Khalid al-Mishri has been reelected as the head of Libya's High Council of State for a fifth term.
Al-Mishri obtained 65 votes out of 118, while his rival, Al-Ajili Abu Sedil, came second with 50 votes in the second round of voting, according to an Anadolu Agency (AA) correspondent. Three council members abstained from voting.
Five candidates had taken part in the first round of voting in which al-Mishri got 45 votes and Abu Sedil won 34 votes.
Members of the High Council of State serve in their posts for one year.
The High Council of State (HCS) – a Tripoli-based body that is equivalent to a senate – rivals the House of Representatives (HoR), based in the eastern city of Tobruk.
Libya has for years been split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each supported by rogue militias and foreign governments. The Mediterranean nation has been in a state of upheaval since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
But a plan had emerged in the past two years that was meant to put the country on the path toward elections. A U.N.-brokered process installed an interim government in early 2021 to shepherd Libyans to elections that were due late last year.
That government, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, briefly unified the political factions under heavy international pressure. But the voting never took place, and since then, the plan has unraveled and left the country in crisis.
Lawmakers in Libya's east-based parliament, headed by influential speaker Saleh, argued that Dbeibah’s mandate ended when the interim government failed to hold elections.
They chose Fathi Bashagha, an influential former interior minister from the western city of Misrata, as the new prime minister. Their position gained the endorsement of putschist Gen.Khalifa Haftar whose forces control the country's east and most of the south, including major oil facilities.
Dbeibah has refused to step down, and factions allied with him in western Libya deeply oppose Haftar. They maintain that Dbeibah, who is also from Misrata with ties to its powerful militias, is working toward holding elections.
