The Interim Government decreed on Tuesday to dissolve the Municipal Council of the Gulf of Sidra, located at Libya’s northern coast in the Mediterranean Sea.
The municipal council will be restructured to become a temporary council of one president and four members, according to the decree.
This is not the first time a municipal council has been dissolved and become a temporary management council to run the municipality until elections are held. The Tobruk and Benghazi municipalities went through the same process.
Several Libyan cities are preparing for municipal elections in the upcoming period after poll successes in Bani Walid and Derj in southwestern Libya in September.
Many Libyans across 68 Libyan municipalities have registered to vote at the upcoming municipal elections. Unifying the government is critical to stabilize Libya, which is adversely affected by the conflict, particularly between rival factions over the power.
In early December, Libyan Central Committee for the Municipal Councils Elections began voter registration in preparation for the upcoming elections whose exact date has yet been revealed in the divided nation.
The committee said earlier 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 voter 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 timelines for election campaigns until the polling day, which is yet to be determined.
