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Holding elections in fractured Libya puts cart before horse

It seems UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame is getting ahead of himself, agreeing to elections before the warring parties reconcile.
A damaged compound occupied by a Libyan self-declared rival prime minister is seen after it was taken over by armed groups aligned with a U.N.-backed government in heavy fighting, in Tripoli, Libya, March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Hani Amara - RC1649A490E0

When Ghassan Salame took over as the United Nations envoy to embattled Libya in June 2017, the former Lebanese culture minister — after consulting extensively with various Libyan factions — promised Libyans and the UN three things.

The first promise was to amend the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA), which was signed in Skhirat, Morocco, in December 2015. The LPA, which still hasn't been implemented, is already outdated and needs amendments to accommodate changes in the Libyan political scene. These changes include the rise of Gen. Khalifa Hifter in eastern Libya as a force to be reckoned with, the increasing role of supporters of the former regime of Moammar Gadhafi and the increasingly disruptive role played by armed militias, particularly in western Libya.

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