The Libyan Central Committee for the Municipal Councils Elections announced opening the door for voter registration on Wednesday in preparation for the upcoming elections whose exact date has yet been revealed in the divided nation.
The committee said earlier that the municipal councils in different regions of Libya would conclude its mandate by the end of this year.
The committee’s program consists of three main stages, the first is to start updating existing voters registration in the municipal councils whose mandate has expired, in addition to the newly established ones, bringing the total to 71 municipalities.
The second stage includes the completion of electoral lists in accordance to the laws governing this process, opening the door for candidates to apply.
In the third stage of the program, the committee will announce the initial and final lists of candidates, and set dates of election campaigns until the polling day to be determined later.
Libya last held elections in 2014 but the results were disputed, deepening divisions that emerged after the country’s 2011 uprising. The poll led to an escalation of armed conflict and to rival parliaments and governments being set up in the capital and the east.
Some Libyan political figures have called for elections as a way to break the deadlock after the stalling of a U.N.-backed peace deal signed in late 2015, with a new U.N. push to amend that deal so far producing no breakthrough.
