Delegates from Libya’s opposing sides have kicked off a five-day meeting to choose an interim prime minister and a three-member presidency council in a crucial bid to reunite the troubled oil-rich country before an election in December.
The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, which includes envoys from around Libya, met on Monday under UN mediation in an undisclosed site outside Geneva in hopes of stabilizing a country that has been largely lawless since Muammar Gadaffi’s fall and killing in 2011.
The gathering, which will select from an agreed list of candidates, caps a process begun in Berlin in January 2020 for a North African country mired in international meddling and pockets of violence despite a holding ceasefire.
The voting process takes place under the mediation of the UN secretary-general’s acting special representative for Libya, Stephanie Williams. The interim authority to be chosen will seek to rebuild state institutions and lead Libya to a national election on December 24.
