Libya’s first election in 40 years has been postponed from the long-promised date of June 19 to July 7, with serious doubt that the election will be held on the new date. I, among many commentators, predicted the delay and I now doubt credible elections could be held in the near future. The National Election Commission (NEC) cited logistical and procedural obstacles in announcing the delay. However, what the NEC failed to mention was that the real obstacles are deeper and more serious, the kind of obstacles that make elections far from conclusive, let alone democratically representative.

Libya as a country remains as divided as it was the day after the former regime was toppled with NATO's help in a bloody war that lasted almost a year. The national reconciliation process never got anywhere, leaving the Libyan people further divided than they were during the war. The interim government remains weak and unable to assert its authority over large parts of the country, particularly in Kufra and Sebha in the south and other smaller regions in the north and northwest.

Since January 2012, Bani Waild, southwest of Tripoli, has been a no-go area for the interim government. Tripoli, the capital itself, is not safe either, particularly around the airport and seafront close to the city center. Less than a week ago, a heavily armed militia overrun the airport and suspended all flights for almost two days. Strangely enough, the militia drove through several pro-government checkpoints along the way from their base in Tarhouna, nearly 90 kilometers away! Last month, the prime minister’s office, in the government compound just off Sekaa Road in Tripoli, was attacked and one of his guards killed by another militia angry for the delayed financial-compensation payments. The irony is that in both those major attacks, no one was charged or prosecuted even though the government knows precisely who was behind both.

Just last week the US consulate building in Benghazi, where the revolt started last year, was attacked by a group calling itself “Brigades of Omar Abdulrrahman,” the blind Islamic clerk serving a life sentence in the United States since 1996. This group never existed before, at least not in Libya.