UN hopes for Libya elections ‘by end of 2018’

UN envoy GhassanSalame said on Wednesday he hoped for elections in Libya by the end of 2018 but that conditions in the strife-torn country were not yet ready for polling.
“There are several conditions. For the time being, we have only achieved one: the start of voter registration,” the UN envoy for Libya told a news conference in Tripoli.
Last September, Salame submitted an action plan to stabilise Libya centred on holding legislative and presidential elections this year.
“All the conditions have not been met,” he said, stressing an electoral law still needed to be adopted and the security situation was not ready.
“The most important thing is to secure the acceptance of all parties of the election results” ahead of polling, which he hoped could be held “by the end of 2018”.
Salame played down the prospects of a disarmament programme, estimating at 20 million the number of weapons in the hands of Libya’s six million population.
A 2015 UN-brokered deal that saw the establishment of a Government of National Accord was meant to calm years of chaos that followed the ouster of dictator Moammar Gaddafi in 2011.
But Libya has remained mired in violent turmoil as the country is riven by divisions between the GNA in Tripoli and a rival administration backed by military strongman KhalifaHaftar in the east.
ICC to open preliminary probes in Philippines, Venezuela
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says she is opening preliminary probes into alleged crimes by police and security forces in the Philippines and Venezuela.
Prosecutor FatouBensouda said in a statement on Thursday that the Philippines probe will focus on allegations since July 2016 that thousands of people have been killed in the government’s war on drugs.
The preliminary examination in Venezuela will look at allegations that since April 2017 government forces “frequently used excessive force to disperse and put down demonstrations”, and abused some opposition members in detention. She adds that some protesters resorted to violence that left members of the security forces dead or injured.
The so-called “preliminary examinations” are a first step toward possible full-blown investigations that could lead to indictments by the global court.