Libya starts voter registration for 2018 elections

TRIPOLI - The Libyan Higher National Commission of Elections on Wednesday announced the start of registration of voters for next year's elections.

"It was decided that voter registration inside the country will begin today and will last 60 days," Emad Al-Sayeh, chairman of the commission, said at a joint press conference with UN Envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame.

"For Libyans outside the country, registration begins on Feb. 1, 2018," he added.

According to Al-Sayeh, the commission and the UN Support Mission in Libya have signed an agreement on technical support and capacity building for the commission in its preparation for the upcoming elections.

"We appreciate all our international partners for their continued support to the Commission over the past six years. We welcome the signing of the elections support project with the UN," the chairman noted.

For his part, Salame said the UN is willing to "provide all the needed technical, advisory and logistic support to the commission."

"We need legislative conditions in terms of election law as well as political conditions that all Libyans, public, communities and political parties, should accept the results of the elections," the UN envoy explained.

Following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime, Libya has been struggling to make a democratic transition amid insecurity and political division.

In September, Salame proposed a road map aimed to end the political crisis in Libya, which included amendment of the current UN-backed political agreement, holding a UN-sponsored national conference for all Libya's political factions, adopting a constitution, and election of a president and a parliament.