Time Is Running Out

Since the none-respect of the election deadline of 24 December 2021, nothing seems to be moving. Apart from the UN envoy Stephanie Williams who has been crisscrossing the country in search for peace solutions, the only other news is the election of a new Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha by a majority of the Libyan Parliament. The former interior minister has as task, the formation of a new national unity government and facilitating the election process. Bashagha, an Islamist and former militia commander from Misrata, appears to have sufficient support from militia forces in the West of the country to assume the post. His election which was broadcast live during a Parliamentary session in the Eastern town of Tobruk, in the presence of house Speaker Aguileh Saleh was preceded by a series of constitutional amendments, paving the way for Parliamentary and Presidential elections in 14 months from the said date.
The decision has not however received a coercive support from the outgoing Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, who has not only refused to step down, but announced the holding of Parliamentary elections in June 2022. According to the UN backed head of government, only after free and transparent elections are held that he will step down, without which any such transfer of power is considered “fraudulent.” But with reports that Libya’s Supreme Council of State, based in Tripoli, has accepted the choice of Fathi Bashagha to head a new government, it is evident that there is more problem in the pipe because according to<...