Libyan eastern army welcomes upcoming elections

TRIPOLI, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Libya's eastern-based army spokesman on Wednesday announced that the army welcomes the upcoming elections in the country.

"We, as army command, welcome the elections, of which (voters) registration started a while ago," said the army spokesman, Ahmad Mismari, in a press conference in the eastern city of Benghazi.

"The elections in Libya must be internationally monitored by the UN and Arab countries in order to ensure neutrality and integrity," Mismari added.

"We, as the Libyan army, will secure polling stations in Libya," he said.

Mismari also called on the eastern parliament to "speed up the issuance of the elections law" according to the constitutional declaration that authorizes the parliament to issue the law before the elections begin.

The Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, Ghassan Salame, proposed an action plan in September to end the Libyan political crisis.

The plan includes amendment of the current UN-sponsored political agreement and holding presidential and parliamentary elections before the end of 2018.

The mission and the Libyan Elections Commission signed an agreement earlier in December to provide logistic and technical support for the upcoming elections. Enditem