The US-based organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Libya is incapable of holding free and fair elections in its current climate.
HRW’s warning revolves around concerns that voters, candidates and political parties in Libya are at risk of “coercion, discrimination, and intimidation”.
This makes it difficult to provide even minimal guarantees of securing any kind of electoral process.
The rights group says armed groups continue to threaten, intimidate, and attack judicial figures and officials.
It also points out that the “legal framework for an election remains opaque”, and is urging the elections commission to conduct “transparent audits of its voter register to rule out any inaccuracies”.
The North African state’s rival governments are planning to hold parliamentary and presidential elections this year, although a date has not yet been set.
They also still have not introduced any new election laws, nor amended existing articles in Libya’s constitutional declaration to define the powers of what would be the country’s first elected president.
The UN and EU member states have been encouraging Libya to hold elections.
