Participants at the UN-sponsored peace talks have approved a list of candidates seeking to lead the transitional government in Libya until the election this year. The United Nations stated that the transitional government would oversee an election that will end more than a decade of conflict in the North African state, which has hammered its rich oil resources on which its economy depends.
Meanwhile, the seventy-five-member UN-brokered talks in Switzerland, including representatives of several Libyan political factions, tribal and regional leaders. Next week, the participants will choose a Prime Minister and a three-member presidential council. Besides, the participants in the Switzerland talks have agreed on a voting formula for the candidates of a transition government.
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According to the documents released by the UN, a total of twenty-one people are vying for the position of the prime minister, while for the three-member presidential council, the parties in the talks will choose from a list of twenty-four people.
Although the fresh talks have progressed in the last few weeks, many Libyans still fear that competition for the powerful post could trigger a potential crisis that could hamper the peace process and the ceasefire that largely held since October last year.
Since 2011, when Muammar Gaddafi’s regime was toppled Libya has been in crisis. The power vacuum in the African nation prompted a civil war for power, and since 2014, Libya has been split between a self-styled army called Libyan National Army (LNA) and an internationally-recognized government in Tripoli. While armed groups have taken control of key state institutions, both LNA and GNA grabbled with the internal division.
Besides, the involvement of major world powers in the decades-long conflict has also made the peace unachievable. Russia, Egypt, and the UAE have backed the self-styled military commander Khalifa Haftar in the east. On the other hand, Turkey has supported the UN-recognized government in the west.
