The speaker of the Libyan parliament Aguila Saleh made public the legislation for national presidential and parliamentary elections, a representative of that House said today, but organizing elections may prove difficult due to ongoing controversies surrounding the process.

The majority of her House of Representatives (HoR) voted on Monday in favor of the new electoral law, spokesman Abdullah Belaihak said, but did not say how many MPs were present and how many of them approved Saleh’s proposals.

Another, internationally recognized, legislative body, the Supreme Council of State (HSC) has not clearly stated whether it has approved the legislation. There is disagreement within the political system as to whether such a thing needs to be done by the HSC.

Libya has not seen long periods of peace and stability since the 2011 uprising and the 2014 east-west split, with rival governments in each region. The HoR is based in eastern Libya and the HSC in Tripoli, in the west, where it is headquartered and the internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU).

International diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis have focused on holding parliamentary and presidential elections to replace the transitional institutions, which include the HoR, the HSC and the GNU. An attempt to organize elections in 2021 collapsed due to disagreements over the rules, after the HSC and other actors in the political system rejected the electoral legislation promoted by the HoR.

The legislation approved on Monday was drafted by a joint committee of HoR and HSC members who met in Morocco earlier this year. In July, however, one of his envoys UN he said these rules “in their present form, would not allow elections to be held successfully”. The HoR says that before the elections the GNU should be replaced by another transitional government, but that could trigger a new cycle of violence.

Two members of the HSC gave Reuters conflicting answers on whether that Council approved the legislation or not.

Meanwhile, most of Libya is controlled by armed groups that may support or oppose specific candidates, and diplomats warn that holding fair elections may prove difficult even if the electoral law is widely accepted.