Last year’s Libyan conflict that ended in the gruesome death of dictator Muammar Gaddafi has all but vanished from news headlines, but the aftershocks and continued violence in the country threaten to undermine its leaders’ attempts to stabilise the situation.

Although the brutal strongman Muammar Gaddafi has now been relegated to those particular annals of history reserved for only the most infamous, his supporters are still alive and very much kicking – a problem that absolutely must be dealt with before the real business of building a modern Libyan state can commence.

But as the new Libyan leaders struggle to gain control of the large country and its various tribes, and while they attempt to hammer out an electoral law to assuage the country’s numerous factions, instability in the fledgling new Libya appears to be mounting at a fast pace.

Forces loyal to the Gaddafi regime have launched a series of attacks across several cities this week, taking the former Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid, a city of 100,000, in the process. Attacks by Gaddafi loyalists also took place in the capital, Tripoli, and in Benghazi. The outbreak of violence was such that it prompted NTC forces as far as the western city of Misrata to declare a high alert.

The attacks, which claimed lives in all three cities, are the latest breakdown in the country’s security, three months after Gaddafi’s capture and killing. Protests have grown in recent weeks, with people demanding that the interim leaders deliver on promises of transparency and compensation for those injured in the civil war.

The new government’s promises to deliver justice for those killed in the uprising have, however, been replaced in some areas by revolutionary fighters taking retribution on their own accord.

The seizing of Bani Walid by Brigade 93 - a militia newly created by Gaddafi loyalists who reassembled after the fall of the regime - is the most serious challenge to the central government since the fall of Gaddafi, underlining the increasing weakness of Libya’s new rulers as they try to unify the country under their authority.

On Saturday, violent protests broke out in Benghazi, the very home of the Libyan uprising, where Libyans angry over corruption allegations and the slow progress of reforms broke into the ruling National Transitional Council’s headquarters and ransacked the offices.

On Sunday, Libya’s transitional government suspended delegates from Benghazi, in the latest sign of discord within the NTC, which has been struggling to establish an effective government to replace the Gaddafi regime.

The distribution of power in the new Libya will be the key to bringing it under control. As matters stand, it seems the country could very well break into yet another conflict, perhaps a multi-faceted one given the highly divergent forces jostling for power in the new Libya.

To such an end, the NTC is scheduled to publish Libya’s new electoral law, paving the way for the establishment of a representative government and a working parliament, which the country has been denied for over 40 years.

The draft law had been published earlier this month and Saturday’s final version will take into consideration recommendations from the Libyan public and civil society. The law will stipulate how Libyans will elect 200 members to the national congress, which will oversee the drafting of a constitution.

It is intended that the National Congress will be elected before 23 June and, no doubt, the sooner the better.