MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/. Holding nationwide elections in Libya could become feasible within 12 to 18 months, provided the UN’s roadmap for resolving the Libyan crisis is successfully implemented, UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Libya and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Hanna Tetteh said in an interview with TASS.

"Not today, but if we implement the roadmap successfully, we should be able to get there in 12 to 18 months as I said in my briefing to the Security Council on August 21st," she said.

"I think it's important that we aspire to get there, because nationwide elections will help to create a unified government that has legitimacy. And that's very important, in order for that government to be able to engage as a strong political actor, both in terms of reshaping the institutions of the country internally, but also as an actor on the global stage," Tetteh added.

Since the overthrow and killing of the country’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011, Libya has ceased to function as a unified state. In recent years, there has been ongoing confrontation between the authorities in Tripoli in the west of the country and the eastern authorities backed by the Libyan National Army. In 2021, the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Geneva, under the auspices of the UN, elected a transitional executive authority to serve until nationwide elections, which have not yet been held. Currently, two mutually unrecognized governments operate in Libya.