CAIRO: Libyan lawmakers voted Tuesday to reschedule parliament elections, a spokesman said, a move likely to increase tensions among Libyan rivals already divided over bills regulating planned elections.
Abdullah Bliheg, a spokesman for the legislature, said lawmakers decided to hold parliamentary elections a month after the presidential vote scheduled for late December.
A U.N.-brokered roadmap had set both parliamentary and presidential elections for Dec. 24. The elections have been seen by many as a step forward to end the country’s divisions. There has been pressure from international governments, including the U.S., on Libyan stakeholders to hold elections as scheduled.
Lawmakers on Monday adopted a bill regulating the parliamentary elections — a few weeks after they voted on a bill for the presidential vote.
Holding the elections as scheduled already faced challenges amid opposition from the country's High Council of State that has argued that the laws were adopted without consultations.
Oil-rich Libya was plunged into chaos after a 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.