Libya’s elections commission said the country was unable to hold the planned Dec. 24 elections due to legal problems.
The statement was made after commission chair Imad el-Sayih and the country’s national security advisor Ibrahim Bushnaf held a meeting in the capital Tripoli on Sunday.
The two officials called on all sides in Libya to take responsibility regarding elections.
The Libyan National Supreme Election Commission had previously suggested postponing the elections to Jan. 24, 2022.
Libya elections failed due to legal problems: Elections commission
Libya’s elections commission said the country was unable to hold the planned Dec. 24 elections due to legal problems.
The statement was made after commission chair Imad el-Sayih and the country’s national security advisor Ibrahim Bushnaf held a meeting in the capital Tripoli on Sunday.
The two officials called on all sides in Libya to take responsibility regarding elections.
The Libyan National Supreme Election Commission had previously suggested postponing the elections to Jan. 24, 2022.
The poll was meant to take place just over a year after a landmark east-west cease-fire in a country that has been ravaged by a decade of conflict since the 2011 revolt that overthrew dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
But the run-up to the country's first-ever presidential election has been overshadowed by angry disputes over its legality and the candidacies of several controversial figures, including Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi.
One point of contention was a presidential elections law controversially passed by Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh, which critics say bypassed due process and favored his ally, Haftar.
The law was strongly opposed by factions in western Libya, where Haftar had waged a yearlong battle to seize Tripoli.
The electoral board has suggested pushing the vote back by a month to Jan. 24, but given the enmity between the eastern-based parliament and authorities in Tripoli, agreeing on a new date will be far from easy.
The delay is also embarrassing for the U.N., which piloted the October 2020 cease-fire and initiated a dialogue process intended to help stabilize the country.
U.N. envoy Jan Kubis quit just a month before the polls, and American diplomat Stephanie Williams was appointed as the U.N. secretary-general's special adviser on Libya.
Last week, Libya’s interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah headed a government meeting, his first since he filed his candidacy to run for president last month.
Under an electoral law, state officials running in the presidential election have to temporarily quit their posts.
Dbeibah's return to his position has reinforced doubts that the polls will be held soon.