{"id":43613,"date":"2018-01-12T01:35:41","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T20:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=43613"},"modified":"2018-01-12T01:35:41","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T20:35:41","slug":"un-endorses-elections-for-libya-by-end-of-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=43613","title":{"rendered":"UN endorses elections for Libya by end of 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NEW YORK, Jan 12 (TNS):<\/strong> The United Nations is committed to helping Libya organize elections by the end of this year, encouraged by the rate at which Libyans have been registering to vote, a top U.N. official said.<\/p>\n<p>The U.N. hopes elections can help stabilize Libya, which was thrown into turmoil after long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Holding elections is a major challenge in a country still split among military and political factions, and where rival governments have claimed authority since the result of a 2014 vote was disputed. Security in many parts of Libya is poor.<\/p>\n<p>A new electoral law would likely have to be agreed and a referendum on a constitution held before national polls.<\/p>\n<p>A UN effort launched in September aims to amend a December 2015 peace plan for Libya and pave the way for a vote, but has so far produced no deal on how to move toward one.<\/p>\n<p>Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said the U.N. saw elections this year as a route to a \u201cpeaceful and inclusive end to the transition phase\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe goal is a Libyan goal: to end the transition phase with an inclusive peaceful process that produces a unified government that is a product of the will of the Libyan people,\u201d Feltman told reporters in Tripoli after meeting Fayez Seraj, head of the internationally recognized government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had the opportunity to talk to the prime minister about the commitment of the secretary-general, the hope of the United Nations, to see inclusive elections take place in 2018, and to pledge the support of the United Nations to support those elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Feltman said the U.N. had been \u201cvery encouraged\u201d by the apparent enthusiasm for elections, pointing to around half a million new voters who have signed up since voter registration was opened in early December.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK, Jan 12 (TNS): The United Nations is committed to helping Libya organize elections by the end of this year, encouraged by the rate at which Libyans have been registering to vote, a top U.N. official said. The U.N. hopes elections can help stabilize Libya, which was thrown into turmoil after long-time leader Muammar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43615,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43613\/revisions\/43615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}