Algeria urges Libyans to hold elections as soon as possible

Algeria has urged political actors in Libya to avoid escalation and work to create conditions for holding fair elections as a way forward to resolving the country’s crisis.

“Algeria is following with great concern the recent developments in the brotherly country, Libya, after the outbreak of armed clashes in the capital, Tripoli, and calls on all Libyan parties for restraint, avoid escalation, and to put the national interest first,” a spokesman for the Algerian Foreign Ministry stated on Twitter.

The statement reiterated that elections are the viable way to consolidate the sovereignty of the Libyan people in choosing their representatives and achieving their legitimate aspirations to end the crisis and lay the foundations for a modern and democratic state.

Algeria’s foreign ministry was referring to the entry of PM-designate of Parliament Fathi Bashagha to the capital on Tuesday, which triggered armed confrontations in central Tripoli and elsewhere in the city.

Bashagha was appointed by the east-based House of Representatives in a challenge to the incumbent PM Dbeibah whose government is based in Tripoli.