The Libyan government has confirmed that holding it on Friday is impossible and suggested a month-long delay, as suggested by authorities overseeing war-torn Libya's first presidential election.
The vote was intended to mark a new start for the oil-rich North African country a year after a landmark ceasefire and more than a decade after its 2011 revolt that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
There was speculation of a delay for a long time. There were bitter disputes over the legal basis of the vote, the powers of the winner and the candidacies of several deeply divisive figures.
On Wednesday, the chairman of the parliamentary committee overseeing the vote wrote to the assembly's speaker that after consulting the technical, judicial and security reports, we inform you that there is no possibility of holding the elections on the date of December 24, 2021, a date set last year during UN-led peace talks in Tunis.
The UN's special envoy Jan Kubis resigned just weeks before the ballot, which was intended to go hand in hand with parliamentary polls.
Among the disputed candidates was Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, whom the International Criminal Court accuses war crimes, and eastern military chief Khalifa Haftar, who led a failed attack on Tripoli.
Abdulhamid Dbeibah's candidacy sparked controversy as he pledged not to run as part of his original leadership bid.
Claudia Gazzini, a Libyan expert at the International Crisis Group think tank, said every faction in Libya has an issue with one of these three candidates.
She told AFP that they tried to stop these candidates from running using legal means, but there seems to have been an informal agreement between some factions not to let the elections go forward.
Many analysts have warned that violence could flare again around the election.
The political uncertainty has raised tensions on the ground in Libya, which is controlled by an array of armed groups, including thousands of foreign mercenaries.
Gunmen had deployed in the suburbs of Tripoli on Tuesday, using a tank and machine gun-mounted pickup trucks to block roads in the Fornaj district, although tensions eased later in the day.
The US ambassador to Libya Richard Norland has urged calm and encouraged steps that can continue to de-escalate the tense security situation. In a statement, the embassy said that work towards elections should be a priority, in line with strong public desires. Gabriel Attal, a spokesman for the French government, said France remained committed to the smooth running of the electoral process until its end. Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock declared the ballot of crucial importance and vowed to work in close collaboration with the UN to make sure it takes place.
Amanda Kadlec, a former member of the UN panel of experts, said if the elections are postponed without any kind of path forward, anxieties will be high.
She told AFP that she could see a breakout of conflict at local levels that could erupt and cascade into other parts of the country or within each region.
The country's electoral commission, the HNEC, suggested delaying the vote to January 24.
The House of Representatives would not approve the date, which is unlikely to happen, because of the HNEC move, which appears to place responsibility squarely on HoR, he said.
Analysts had suggested that the delay in announcing a postponement was because no side wanted to take responsibility for the move.
Since the October 2020 ceasefire, Libya has seen a year of relative calm, with both sides backing foreign states backing the offensive after Haftar's forces launched a year-long offensive on Tripoli.
The possibility of new fighting in Libya remains, even with vast stockpiles of weapons left behind by the Kadhafi regime.