Libyan lawmakers voted on Tuesday to reschedule parliamentary elections for January instead of holding them on Dec. 24 as planned, a spokesperson said, a move likely to increase tensions among Libyan rivals already divided over bills regulating planned elections.
Abdullah Bliheg, a spokesperson for the legislature, said lawmakers decided to hold parliamentary elections a month after the presidential vote scheduled for late December.
A U.N.-brokered road map had set both parliamentary and presidential elections for Dec. 24. The elections have been seen by many as a step forward to end the country’s divisions. There has been pressure from international governments, including the U.S., on Libyan stakeholders to hold elections as scheduled.
Elections are supposed to help unify the country after years of conflict and division, but disputes over their legal and constitutional basis have laid bare the extent of the split between the country’s east and west.
