Even though Libya went to the polls last week, the lack of enthusiasm among the electorate was apparent in the paltry turnout, which was even lower than in July 2012, the first free national vote in more than 40 years. According to officials, about 630,000 people cast their ballots, fewer than half of the 1.5 million people who were eligible to vote.
Given the widespread frustration over the outgoing General National Congress, which the new parliament will replace, the question is this: why are Libyans reluctant to vote? The simple answer is that they have grown weary of politics three years after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011 and, more instructively, they think that real power lies in the hands of the many militias now at large around the country. These groups have never allowed any government to do its work unimpeded and it is unlikely they will do so now.
As the elections began, at least four people were killed in clashes between Islamists and government forces in Benghazi. And, as The National reported, one of the country's most prominent activists, Salwa Bughaigis, was assassinated at home hours after casting her ballot. Bughaigis, a lawyer, was among the most outspoken voices against militias and extremists.
Although Libyans have expressed shock and anger at the killing, the incident is increasingly common in a country where secular activists, judges, moderate clerics and policemen are frequent targets.
Libyans understand the advantages of democracy, but they also crave security. The violence that has recently pulsed across the country has been some of the worst Libya has experienced in the post-Qaddafi period and hardly encourages the electorate to believe these elections are a meaningful exercise in democratic rule.
The problem now is that the low turnout will neither make the various militias accept the legitimacy of the new parliament nor hasten them to disarm in favour of the emerging political arrangement.
Unless a compromise is reached, stability and progress will remain impossible. Worse still, political stalemate will encourage the militias to believe they, rather than politicians, will shape the destiny of this conflict-ravaged country.