Salame says “hard to conduct elections” in Libya this year

The UN envoy to Libya said that it will be difficult to hold elections as hoped on December 10, following a new wave of fighting in the North African nation.

“There is still a lot to do. It may not be possible to respect the date of December 10,” Gassan Salame said in an interview.

Rival Libyan leaders agreed to a Paris-brokered deal in May to hold a nationwide poll by the end of the year.

But Salame said that polls may not be organised before “three or four months”.

“We can hold elections in the near future, yes. But certainly not now,” he added in the interview on Saturday evening at the highly fortified UN mission in Tripoli.