Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General (SASG) for Libya, Stephanie Williams reiterated the need to "respect the will of the 2.5 million Libyans" who registered to vote in the delayed elections.
Williams convened in Tripoli on Sunday a consultative session of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) women's bloc in person and virtually to discuss the challenges facing the electoral process following the High National Election Commission's (HNEC) declaration of force majeure.
"As always, I appreciated the constructive, principled and thoughtful recommendations provided by the women's bloc which previously played a leading role in the LPDF deliberations," she tweeted.
"I recalled the timeline laid out in the LPDF roadmap which extends until June of this year, as the UNSC-endorsed framework for the comprehensive solution to end Libya's long transitional period," she added.
"I stressed the need to respect the will of the 2.5 million Libyans who collected their voter registrations cards and called for urgent and serious efforts to address the crisis of legitimacy facing Libya's national institutions," she stressed.
Presidential and parliamentary elections were set for December 2020, but they were postponed over what the HNEC said were inadequacies in the electoral legislation and the judicial appeals process.
The planned vote was the lynchpin of international peace efforts, and major regional and international powers had for months pushed for it to take place as scheduled.
But many inside and outside Libya doubted the election would proceed as planned. Some warned that holding the vote could destabilize the country, given the continued polarization.
An internationally brokered October 2020 ceasefire has kept a relative peace since. But some its main provisions — the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries within three months and adherence to a UN arms embargo — have not been met.
