Libyan opposition rejects election offer

Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, the official spokesman for Libyan revolutionaries

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185067.html

Libyan revolutionaries have rejected an offer of elections by Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi's son as a way to resolve the country's impasse.

"We tell him (Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam) that the time has passed because our forces are at the outskirts of Tripoli, and they will join our people and forces there to uproot the symbol of corruption and tyranny in Libya," said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, the spokesman for revolutionary forces, Reuters reported.

Earlier on Thursday, Gaddafi's son told Italian Corriere della Sera newspaper in the Libyan capital of Tripoli that the embattled regime is ready to hold an internationally-supervised elections within three months.

Saif al-Islam added that his father would relinquish power if he lost the elections. However, he said his father's victory in that vote will be definite to “show how popular Gaddafi still is in his country.”

A US State Department official has dismissed Saif al-Islam's proposal of holding elections, saying it was “a little late for that.”

Meanwhile, Russia's mediating envoy to Libya Mikhail Margelov said on the same day that Libyan revolutionaries are holding negotiations with the Gaddafi regime.

“I was assured at today's negotiations that direct contacts between Benghazi and Tripoli are already underway,” Margelov said in Tripoli after a meeting with Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi.

A round of talks finished in Paris on Wednesday and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been informed about the results of the negotiations, Margelov said, quoting the Libyan premier.

The Russian envoy visited opposition forces in the eastern city of Benghazi last week.