Libya's Fraying Power Structures

Tripoli announced recently that it would extend registration deadlines for nearly 100 local council elections that have been delayed for months due to weak voter interest. The central government's urgency about holding local elections reflects its growing reliance on a widening pool of disparate rural authorities -- a departure from its post-revolutionary model of working with larger regional power centers to maintain a fragile peace.

Tripoli's weakened hold over Libyan security and power became evident soon after the ouster of former leader Moammar Gadhafi in October 2011. The interim authority that replaced him, the National Transitional Council, was tasked with holding together a country that is naturally fractured by geography and regional differences, without the strong security and political tools of the Gadhafi regime. The result has been a complicated system of interdependence between the central government and Libya's various urban centers and their respective environs, held together by the distribution of the country's oil revenues.

Just as Tripoli has been struggling with the limits of its own weakened authority, regional governments are having similar difficulties maintaining control of their own militias and tribal groups, making a sustainable return to stability in Libyan politics or oil production unlikely for the foreseeable future.

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