Libya's electoral commission proposes January 24 for delayed polls

Libya's election board on Wednesday suggested that presidential polls should take place on January 24, after a parliamentary committee said holding them on time this week was "impossible"

"The High National Electoral Commission suggests, after liaising with the House of Representatives, that the first round of voting should be delayed until January 24," the HNEC said in a statement on Facebook.

Less than 48 hours before D-day, a parliamentary committee in charge of monitoring the polls concluded that it was "impossible" to hold the polls on the scheduled date, despite being set a year ago.

The committee's conclusions were made public as an announcement of the postponement of the vote had been expected for several days, due to the lack of adequate preparations and against a background of insurmountable disagreements between rival camps.

"There hasn’t been a campaign period, Libyans have no idea who they’re voting for, what their platforms are about, if they even have platforms, so the conditions are not ripe for an electoral process of this magnitude. UNSMIL is very aware of that, I think HNEC is aware of that to a degree, although they consider themselves to be capable of carrying out elections on a technical basis," said Amanda Kadlec, an analyst and former member of the UN panel of experts on Libya.

The 24 December election was supposed to mark the end of the UN-sponsored political process in the north African country.

Libya has been on the verge of divisive regional politics since the fall of the longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.