TRIPOLI, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Members of Libya's Tripoli-based High Council of State on Tuesday proposed holding parliamentary elections before the end of this year.
A group of 58 council members put forward the proposal as the council had failed to reach an agreement with the eastern-based House of Representatives, the parliament, on a legal framework regulating the north African country's elections.
"We believe that the available and possible solution is to hold parliamentary elections that lead to the creation of a parliament that appoints a government, provided that the main task of the new parliament is to achieve a constitutional basis and hold presidential elections," the council members said in a statement.
The statement came after clashes erupted between armed groups affiliated with two rival governments in central Tripoli over the weekend. Two nights of violent clashes since late Friday left at least 23 people dead and injured at least 140 others.
Libya is currently at a political impasse. The House of Representatives withdrew confidence from Abdul-Hamed Dbeibah's Government of National Unity in Tripoli and voted in March to install a new government led by Fathi Bashagha.
Dbeibah rejected the March vote and said he would only transfer power to an elected government.
Libya failed to hold general elections in Dec. 2021 as previously scheduled, due to disagreements among the Libyan parties.
The country has suffered political instability and chaos since late leader Muammar Gaddafi's fall in 2011. ■