1.6 million Libyans slated to vote in 2018 elections

By Jihad Nasr

TRIPOLI, Libya

The number of Libyans registered to vote in 2018 presidential and parliamentary polls currently stands at some 1.6 million, according to the official Libyan News Agency (LNA).

Next year's elections are considered a critical component of a UN-sponsored roadmap for the troubled North African country's political future.

Libya's voter-registration process began on Dec. 6 and is scheduled to continue for another two months.

A date for the polls, however, has yet to be set.

Imad al-Saih, head of Libya's official electoral commission, has urged "all parties" to take part in the country's obstacle-prone electoral process.

"The commission is not biased towards or against any particular party," LNA quoted al-Saih as saying on Wednesday.

When Libya held its last parliamentary poll in 2014, some 1.5 million Libyans registered to cast ballots.

The UN's Libya roadmap, endorsed in October by the UN Security Council, calls for both parliamentary and presidential polls to be held next year.

Libya has remained dogged by political uncertainty since 2011, when a bloody uprising led to the ouster and death of strongman Muammar Gaddafi after more than four decades in power.

The ensuing power vacuum led to the emergence of several rival seats of government, including one in Tobruk and another in Tripoli, and a plethora of heavily-armed militia groups.