Representatives from eastern and western Libya have signed a UN-sponsored agreement committing the country’s rival sides to holding presidential and legislative elections within a maximum of two years, in a new attempt to advance national unification.
Libya has remained institutionally divided since 2014, with separate entities operating in the country’s eastern and western territories. The agreement, negotiated by four representatives from each side through the 4+4 Committee and mediated by the UN mission for Libya, UNSMIL, seeks to establish the political and institutional conditions needed for nationwide elections.
Under the agreement, the elections must be organised by a unified authority and “unique national sovereign” institutions. Achieving that requirement will itself require negotiations between the rival sides, as each currently maintains its own institutions and entities in its respective territory.
The agreement also provides for restructuring the Electoral Commission and addressing disputes over the laws that will govern the elections. The provisions are intended to resolve some of the institutional and legal disagreements that have contributed to repeated delays in Libya’s efforts to hold a nationwide vote.
The parties have additionally committed to recognising a candidate as the winner without a second round if that candidate secures 50 per cent of the votes plus one. The issue has been the subject of extensive debate in recent years and remains an important element of the electoral framework.
The new agreement, however, represents a significant change to the timetable set out by UNSMIL. In August 2025, the mission’s special representative in Libya, Hanna Tetteh, presented a roadmap to the UN Security Council that envisaged presidential and legislative elections within a maximum of 18 months.
Had that roadmap proceeded according to its original schedule, Libya would have been six months away from electing a president and representatives to a Parliament serving the entire country. Instead, the latest agreement postpones the electoral event to 2028.
The change reflects the prolonged stagnation of the UN-backed political process. Tetteh has repeatedly acknowledged that the roadmap has stalled and blamed the leaders of the rival parties for “delaying the agreed deadlines”. She had consequently considered modifications to the roadmap, with the 4+4 agreement representing the first such change.
For UNSMIL, the agreement nevertheless offers a potential route forward after years of political deadlock. Tetteh described it as “a significant step forward”, while stressing that its value would ultimately depend on implementation.
“The priority now is to implement its provisions within the agreed timeframe and maintain momentum to complete the remaining stages of the roadmap,” she said.
The agreement therefore places renewed emphasis on turning political commitments into functioning national institutions capable of organising elections. The requirement for a unified electoral authority and “unique national sovereign” institutions means that negotiations between the eastern and western sides will remain central to the process.
Tetteh has also stressed the need to prevent another cycle of postponements. Following what she described as continuous blockades and delays, she said the “primary objective is to create the conditions for holding elections within a clear and unchangeable timeframe”.
The two-year deadline now provides the rival Libyan authorities with a new target for presidential and legislative elections. But the agreement also highlights the scale of the task ahead: before a nationwide vote can take place, the competing institutions must reach arrangements capable of supporting a unified electoral process.
For a country divided institutionally since 2014, the agreement represents another attempt to move from competing authorities towards national political institutions. Whether the new 2028 target can avoid the delays that undermined the previous roadmap will depend on the willingness of the rival sides to implement the commitments they have now made.
