UN-Backed Intra-Libyan Forum Creates Advisory Committee to Help Select Interim Cabinet

United Nations, Jan 3 (Agency) The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum has set up an 18-strong advisory committee that is meant to help the conflicting sides reach a consensus on a new unified executive authority, which will oversee the 2021 elections, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has said. “Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General Stephanie Williams is pleased to announce the establishment of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum’s Advisory Committee and is grateful to the LPDF members for their active and constructive participation,” the mission said late on Saturday.

According to UNSMIL, the committee brings together 18 members to “ensure broad geographical and political diversity as well as the participation of women, youth, and cultural components.” “The Committee’s mandate will be strictly time-bound and its main mission shall be to discuss outstanding issues related to the selection of a unified executive and to put forward concrete and practical recommendations upon which the plenary shall decide. The national elections date of December 24, 2021 remains a sine qua non for UNSMIL, a guiding principle and unrenounc` eable goal,” the press release added. The UN-backed Libyan Political Dialogue Forum was held in Tunisia in November. Its participants – 75 delegates representing various strata of Libyan society – were unable to agree on the tools for choosing an interim executive authority that is set to steer the country through the 2021 elections. The sole agreement they reached was on a road map proposed by UNSMIL to unify the nation’s public authorities and the elections date, December 24, 2021.

Libya has been divided between two opposing governments since the overthrow and assassination of the country’s long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with the Tripoli-based government and the Libyan National Army controlling the country’s west and east, respectively.