Haftar calls for technocrats' govt to oversee Libya elections

Libyan militia leader Khalifa Haftar has called for a unified government of technocrats to organise long-delayed elections in place of the rival administrations currently vying for control.

On Friday, a statement from Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army or LNA urged the rival administrations "to end the political divisions and form a new unified government comprising technocrats tasked with organising elections".

Last week, both sides agreed on the legal steps to hold the elections following talks in Morocco, but stopped short of signing a deal, suggesting that some differences remain.

Among the contested points are the candidacy of dual nationals and soldiers.

Haftar also holds US citizenship, and his detractors accuse him of seeking to restore military dictatorship in Libya.

The United Nations, which hopes the elections could take place before the end of the year, has said it would work towards helping iron out differences between the rival sides.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya [UNSMIL] said that UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily had "initiated a series of meetings with political leaders in Libya, regional and international partners, and other stakeholders to hear their analysis and discuss potential ways forward".

According to the statement, some of Bathily's interlocutors voiced concerns over the agreement struck last week in Morocco which, they claimed, "could hinder elections from a practical and political standpoint".

It gave no further details.

Civil war

Libya's armed forces were split into two after the self-proclaimed power of armed forces in the country's east Sirte, the LNA, distanced from the UN-backed government's army in the capital Tripoli.

The North African country fell into more than a decade of crisis and repeated episodes of armed conflict after the fall of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi in a 2011 uprising.

The country's east and part of the south are under the de facto control of Haftar, who made a failed attempt to take the capital in 2019-2020.

Presidential and legislative elections were originally scheduled for December 2021 to cap a UN-sponsored peace process following the last bout of large-scale fighting in 2019-20.

But the polls were postponed indefinitely due to sharp differences over controversial candidates and rules surrounding participation.