Libya’s 4+4 Dialogue Committee signed the final draft agreement containing an election timetable in Tripoli, with the aim of ending the country’s political division and unifying its national institutions.
The ceremony was held at the headquarters of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya and attended by committee members, several ambassadors, members of the House of Representatives and the High Council of State, as well as a representative of Libya’s Presidential Council. The text was read by Waleed al-Lafi, who heads the Government of National Unity delegation, and Shaybani Abu Humoud, head of the delegation representing forces in eastern Libya. Libya Special Representative Hanna Tetteh also attended the ceremony.
24-month timetable for elections
Under the agreement, presidential and parliamentary elections will be held within no more than 24 months under a single executive authority and unified national institutions. If elections cannot be held within this period, the parties will determine an appropriate mechanism to hold them in cooperation with the United Nations Support Mission in Libya.
The text also provides for the reconstitution of the board of the High National Election Commission. Under the agreement, Dıv Ibrahim Atiye will be appointed chairman of the commission, while Sena al-Lishani will serve as deputy chair.
The agreement allows dual nationals to run in presidential elections and provides safeguards requiring the elected candidate to renounce citizenship outside Libya before taking the oath of office. It also proposes legal arrangements that would allow the elections to be rerun if the winning candidate fails to meet this condition.
Soldiers will be allowed to participate in presidential elections both as candidates and voters. Presidential candidates will be required to collect the signatures of 20,000 registered voters from different regions of Libya.
Parliament to hold authority over permanent constitution
The 4+4 Committee agreed to leave decision-making authority on the permanent constitution to the newly elected parliament. The new parliament will address matters related to the permanent constitution, including its adoption.
Meetings of the new House of Representatives and the executive authority are planned to rotate according to a fixed schedule among Tripoli, Benghazi in the east and Sabha in the south.
Negotiations in Rome and Tunis
Hanna Tetteh described the agreement as an important step toward Libya’s stability and national unity. She said the text supports joint efforts to create the conditions necessary for holding national elections and unifying the institutions.
Tetteh said the agreement emerged from talks that began in Rome, the capital of Italy, on April 29, and seven rounds of negotiations held at the mission’s headquarters in Tunis.
The eight-member 4+4 Committee consists of four representatives of the Government of National Unity in Tripoli and four representatives of the formation in eastern Libya. The committee has been holding talks since April 2026 to overcome the political deadlock and advance the sections of the United Nations road map concerning elections and the unification of the executive authority.
On August 20, the committee had initialed the final draft agreement on elections and the unification of the executive authority. The talks continued after Special Representative Tetteh said, during her briefing to the United Nations Security Council on April 22, that she had engaged with a small group of Libyan actors.
Political division in Libya
The work on the agreement formed part of a process aimed at enabling Libyan institutions to implement the first two phases of the road map announced in August 2025 and identifying ways out of the current political impasse.
Libya has the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, headed by Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, which governs all of the western regions. The government of Osama Hammad, based in Benghazi, controls eastern Libya and most cities in the south. The House of Representatives appointed the Hammad government at the beginning of 2022.
The long-awaited elections are expected to bring an end to the political and armed conflicts and transitional periods that have continued since the end of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule from 1969 to 2011.
