Signs of Libya's partition grow, election needed, warns UN special envoy

The U.N. special envoy for Libya warned Friday that signs of partition are already evident in the troubled North African nation and urged influential nations to pressure Libya's rival leaders to urgently finalize the constitutional basis for elections.

The first anniversary of the vote's postponement is coming up later in December, said Abdoulaye Bathily, who stressed that if there is no resolution, an alternative way should be found to hold elections.

Oil-rich Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. In the chaos that followed, the county split into two rival administrations, each backed by different rogue militias and foreign governments.

Bathily told the U.N. Security Council that the continuing disagreement between the two rivals specifically, the speaker of Libya's east-based parliament, Aguila Saleh, and Khaled al-Mashri, the president of the High Council of State based in the country's west, in the .