The UN envoy to Libya today asked the country’s main power players to nominate delegates to a meeting aimed at reaching an election settlement, in an apparent new call for national elections.

Efforts to get rival factions in Libya to agree to hold elections have been the focus of diplomacy for years, but little progress has been made toward that end since a 2020 ceasefire that halted major fighting in most of them.

Envoy Abdoulaye Batili said in a statement that the main groups should move to a new stage to hold elections, saying they should define what issues need to be resolved in order for the election process to begin.

Potential participants include the Government of National Unity, the Presidential Council and the Supreme Council of State – all based in Tripoli – as well as the House of Representatives and the Libyan National Army based in Benghazi, eastern Libya.

The last major push to hold elections in December 2021 collapsed at the last minute due to disagreements over rules. The last elections held in Libya were in 2014.

A major obstacle now is disagreement among Libya’s factions over whether a new government should be installed to oversee the process. The Government of National Unity has refused to resign until after the elections.

While all major political players in the country have repeatedly called for elections, many Libyans have expressed skepticism about the real will for a vote that could disqualify most of them from positions of power.

The United States, Britain, Germany, Italy and France issued a joint statement touting the move as an opportunity to “put Libya on the path to long-term stability.”