Impossible to hold presidential vote, says Libya parliament

Seif al-Islam, right, the son of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi registers his candidacy. Pic/AP

A Libyan parliamentary committee said Wednesday that it has become "impossible" to hold a long-awaited presidential election in two days as scheduled, in a major blow to international efforts to end a decade of chaos in the oil-rich country.

It was the first official statement that the vote would not happen on Friday, although it had been widely expected amid mounting challenges and calls for a delay. For nearly a year, the election was the lynchpin of international efforts to bring peace to Libya.

In a letter to Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh, lawmaker al-Hadi al-Sagheir, head of the committee tasked to follow the electoral process, said the group found "it is impossible to hold the election as scheduled on Dec 24." He did not specify whether another date had been set for the voting, or if it had been cancelled altogether.

Later Wednesday, the election commission proposed a new date for the first round of the presidential election - Jan 24. Around hundred candidates had put themselves forward, including the son of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted and killed in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

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