PARIS, Nov 14, Reuters - There are serious steps being taken in Libya to compromise over an election planned for December as part of a peace process, the country's Presidency Council head Mohamed al-Menfi told Reuters.
He said in an interview that we must be optimistic and think that the elections will be on time with the agreement of Libyans.
He said there are serious steps to make a consensus to hold the election on time on December 24.
Disputes over the schedule and rules for Libya's elections, including who should be allowed to run, threaten to derail a U.N. backed peace process that is seen as the best hope in years to end a decade of chaos.
Menfi was in Paris for Friday's international conference on Libya, at which world powers agreed to consider sanctions for anyone who disrupts the election, but made no move to bring its rival factions together to agree on rules for the vote.
The vote was called through a U.N. backed roadmap that demanded simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections on December 24. A law issued by the Speaker Aguila Saleh pushed the parliamentary vote to a later date.
Some of the most prominent candidates are highly controversial figures such as Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, who announced his candidacy on Sunday. Gaddafi was sentenced in 2015 to death by a Tripoli court for war crimes and is wanted by the International Criminal Court. Question marks hang over other candidates, including eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, whom western factions accuse war crimes, and interim prime minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, who had vowed not to run.
Menfi said that the process is trying to end this process in a democratic, transparent and acceptable way for all Libyans on December 24 so that power is handed over to an elected authority.
He said there should not be any disputes over candidates who meet the requirements of electoral laws once they have been agreed.
He said that they are not worried about the participation of any Libyan if they meet the conditions of the electoral laws.