The U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Libya, Stephanie Williams, has accused the country’s politicians of being a corrupt class who rather stay in power than leading Libya toward elections. “The current political class wants to keep transitional governments ongoing,” she said, adding that same class have “hijacked the political future of Libya.”The Libyan elections, originally scheduled for December last year, collapsed after the Government of National Unity, led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, failed to organize the vote. Furthermore, Dbeibeh himself violated a pledge not to run for president which he made after being picked for premiership by the U.N.-backed Libyan Political Dialogue Forum. However, Williams notably did not take any responsibility for the failure of elections, which comes at a sharp contrast with her criticism of the Libyan political class since the latter was partially a product of the U.N.-sponsored political process that brought Dbeibeh to power in 15 February 2021. The rumours of bribery at the dialogue forum were rife at the time and have been common knowledge in Libya for two months prior to Dbeibeh’s appointment.

Source: Libya Today July 31, 2022 17:17 UTC