Libyan officials returned to the Egyptian capital Sunday for a third round of talks on constitutional amendments for elections. The North African nation once again finds itself at a political impasse with two rival administrations claiming legitimacy.
The talks in Cairo come on the heels of clashes between rival militias that caused residents of the Libyan capital of Tripoli to panic and revived nightmares of previous bouts of fighting in the chaos-stricken nation. Lawmakers from Libya's east-based parliament and the High Council of State, an advisory body from western Libya, began the U.N.-brokered negotiations amid concerted international pressure on the two chambers to put their disputes aside and agree on the election's legal basis.
The U.N. Special adviser on Libya, Stephanie Williams, said talks in a Cairo hotel will continue till June 19 with the aim of establishing a constitutional framework "required to take the country to national elections as soon as possible."
In the previous two rounds of talks, the parties came to an initial consensus on 137 articles of the constitutional draft, including on rights and freedoms. They would continue discussing a handful of disputed articles on legislative and judicial authority, Williams said. The dispute over the constitutional framework of the election was among major challenges that caused planned national elections to fail in December.