Libya talks' participants to vote on new interim government

Participants in talks on Libya’s political future were preparing for a ballot on Friday morning to select a new interim government, part of a U.N. process aimed at resolving the country’s decade of chaos with elections in December.

Candidates for prime minister and for roles in a new presidency council have been auditioning through the week in livestreamed sessions and joined together into four lists on Thursday.

Talks participants were expected to convene to vote on the four rival lists at 07:30 GMT.

Libya has had little peace since the NATO-backed intervention that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s four-decade rule in 2011. Since 2014 it has been split between warring administrations in the west and east, backed by foreign powers.

The latest U.N. process emerged from a Berlin conference last year and gathered pace in the autumn after Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based forces were repelled from a 14-month assault on Tripoli.

The process has also involved a military ceasefire but not all its terms have been met - a sign of the continued mistrust on both sides and the internal fractures within both camps.

All candidates for the new transitional government have undertaken to hold national presidential and parliamentary elections on December 24 in which they would not stand for office.