Libya’s eastern parliament calls for elections next year

BENGHAZI / AP

Libya’s eastern-based parliament has called for elections to be held early next year, after it backed out of a United Nations-brokered peace deal with rival authorities in the capital, Tripoli. The widening split has stoked concerns that violence could escalate in the fractured country.
In an open letter to the country’s electoral commission released late Tuesday, the Tobruk-based House of Representatives requested the national election commission make “all the necessary arrangements to prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections before Feb. 2018,” citing Libya’s ongoing “difficult situation” and “political struggle.” The body earlier voted to withdraw its support for the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord, a decision that comes days after breakaway militias backed by western Libyan factions seized oil terminals from the east’s strongman general.
Libya descended into chaos with its 2011 civil war, which ended with the killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country has been split into two competing parliaments and governments, each backed by a set of militias, tribes and political factions. Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter’s army is allied to the internationally-recognized parliament based in eastern Libya.