Libya faces uncertain future as it prepares for polls

Mustafa Kamel                      

Violence is increasing in Libya as the North African country gears up for its legislative elections later this month and presidential elections early next year.

The same violence attests to the possibility of problems to be caused by election losers.

Some forces strive to cancel out the elections, or at least postpone them indefinitely.

This happens in the absence of a charismatic person to unite the Libyans behind him.

The past few days witnessed serious developments in this country. Apart from the increasing pace of violence in different parts of Libya, the United Nations envoy to the country has submitted his resignation. The election law was also drafted, but the law is causing some anger.

Scenarios

Independent analyst and researcher, Nadera al-Sharif, who specializes in the transformations taking place in the Arab world warned against a possible outburst of violence in Libya.

“Around 90 people are running for president,” al-Sharif said. “Nevertheless, none of these candidates is capable of uniting the Libyans,” he told The Reference.

He said election losers will possible react violently, which would make the situation worse in some parts of Libya.

He added that the elections have become an objective unto themselves, being seen by some Libyans as some of the spoils of the war in their country.

“Some Libyans also blame political actors for clinging to power at all costs,” al-Sharif said.

He referred to the presence of a desire inside some forces in Libya to postpone the elections, even with force.

Al-Sharif highlighted the presence of what he called disconnect between what ordinary Libyans expect from the elections and what will happen on the ground.

“Ordinary people want a complete change of the political class,” al-Sharif said. “However, what we see is that the same political class perseveres and most of the presidential candidates belong to this class.”