At a time of growing uncertainty about the organization of presidential elections on 24 December, Libya's High Electoral Commission announced the postponement of the announcement of the initial lists of qualified candidates for parliamentary elections scheduled for next February.

In a statement posted on its Twitter account, Libya's High Electoral Commission said that the postponement was the result of more than anticipated applications for election and explained that it had received 5385 applications for election in 75 constituencies.

Following the completion of the application acceptance process on December 7, UNHCR, in collaboration with the competent authorities, began the process of reviewing applications and determining whether candidates met the requirements for participation in the electoral benefit.

The Electoral Commission did not disclose the length of the postponement, merely stating: "The audit process will take a longer period of time than planned, with which UNHCR will have to postpone briefly the process of advertising the preliminary lists."

It is recalled that two days ago, the Libyan Electoral Commission announced the postponement of the announcement of the final list of candidates for the presidential election, the last step before the launch of the election campaign, and that the reason for this was judicial and legal proceedings that need to be completed.

There have been increasing indications in recent days that the planned presidential elections may be postponed after 11 days, but the international community is that it will be a serious setback in a country that has been in chaos for more than a decade.