Eager voters cast ballots yesterday in Libya’s first free national elections for decades after the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, but protesters disrupted some polling in the troubled east.
Words cannot capture my joy, this is a historic day
In Tripoli, voting got underway with queues of people keen to elect the General National Congress, which will be at the helm of the country for a transition period.
“Words cannot capture my joy, this is a historic day,” said Fawziya Omran, 40, one of the first women in line at the Ali Abdullah Warith school in the heart of the capital.
“I’ve made my choice. I hope it is the right choice and that the candidate will not disappoint us,” she told AFP.
Voters in the capital turned up draped in black, red and green flags – the colours of the revolution that toppled Gaddafi last year – while mosques blasted chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest).
Joy was also palpable in the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the uprising.
“I feel like my life has been wasted so far, but now my children will have a better life,” said Hueida Abdul Sheikh, a 47-year-old mother of three who was waiting in line.
However, protesters calling for greater representation forced the closure of several polling stations elsewhere in the tense region.
Nuri al-Abbar, chairman of the electoral commission, said acts of sabotage, mostly in the east, prevented 101 polling stations opening.
“Ninety-four per cent of polling stations opened,” he told reporters in Tripoli, with voting underway in 1,453 out of 1,554 centres.
“Some of the polling stations were not opened. Because of security reasons, logistical materials haven’t reached them,” he said.
“We are currently dealing with this, sending material to the polling stations so they can start voting,” he said.
Protesters in the east, unhappy over the distribution of seats in the new assembly, had threatened to sabotage the vote, staging a string of disruptive acts of violence in recent days.
In Tripoli, a senior electoral official confirmed there had been some incidents in the east but dismissed reports the vote could be delayed in those areas, stressing they were working towards a solution.
“Ninety-two per cent of voting centres are open,” he said.
Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who voted in his eastern home town of Al-Bayda, said the situation there was “excellent”. He expressed hope for a successful vote and hailed as a martyr an electoral worker who was killed last Friday.
“We hope that our brothers in Benghazi will stay away from such problems and that the voting will go ahead as planned,” he told AFP.
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, who heads a team of 21 EU observers, said the vote marks a major milestone in the transition to democracy after 42 years of dictatorship.
“We believe to have this election in Libya less than one year after the fall of Tripoli is an important achievement,” MrLambsdorff told AFP.
“We only hope that the situation remains peaceful across the country. The majority of Libyans want to vote. Eighty per cent want to vote.”
On the eve of the ballot, gunfire struck a helicopter in eastern Libya killing an election worker.
Also, five oil facilities were forced to shut down by gunmen who want greater representation for the east in the 200-member congress.
And last Sunday, gunmen ransacked the office of the electoral commission in Benghazi.
The make-up of the congress has been a matter of heated debate, with factions such as the federalist movement calling for more seats.
The outgoing National Transitional Council (NTC) says seats were distributed according to demographics, with 100 going to the west, 60 to the east and 40 to the south.
But factions in the east want an equal split and had threatened to sabotage the vote if this demand is not met.
The authorities dismiss such groups as a minority, pointing out that more than 2.7 million people, or about 80 percent of the electorate, have registered to take part in the poll.
Libya has not seen elections since the era of the late King Idris, whom Gaddafi deposed in a bloodless coup in 1969.
Parties were banned as an act of treason during Gaddafi’s iron-fisted rule. Now there are 142 parties fielding candidates.
A total of 80 seats are reserved for party candidates while 120 seats are open to individual candidates. Altogether, 3,707 candidates are running in 72 districts across the country.
From the parties, the coalition of ex-war time prime minister Mahmud Jibril is seen as a key contender among liberals, facing stiff competition from two Islamist parties – Justice and Development and Al-Wattan.
The winds of the Arab Spring that ushered Islamists into power in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt may well bring the same result.
The incoming congress will have legislative powers and appoint an interim government. But it no longer has the right to appoint a constituent authority, under a last-minute amendment issued by the NTC, and the body will be chosen in a separate election.
A February 2011 uprising ended more than four decades of rule by the country’s former dictator, who was killed while on the run in October.
Key events since Gaddafi’s ouster:
2011
• October 20: Gaddafi is captured and killed while trying to flee Sirte, his hometown and the last major city to fall to Western-backed rebels who had risen up against his regime nine months earlier.
• October 23: The National Transitional Council (NTC) declares Libya’s “total liberation” and says more than 30,000 were killed in the conflict.
• October 31: Nato announces the end of its military role.
• November 19: Seif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s most prominent son, is captured by militiamen in the south and detained in Zintan.
• December 12-13: Hundreds protest against the NTC in Benghazi, cradle of the revolt.
2012
• January 26: Rights groups say former rebels have been torturing, and sometimes killing, Gaddafi loyalists.
• January 28: The NTC adopts an electoral law and announces a June 2012 vote for a constituent assembly.
• March 6: Tribal and political leaders in Benghazi declare their oil-rich region of Cyrenaica autonomous, raising fears the country may break up.
• March 17: Abdullah al-Senussi, Gaddafi’s former spymaster wanted by the International Criminal Court, is arrested in Mauritania.
• March 26-27: At least 30 people are killed in two days of tribal clashes in the southern oasis of Sabha.
• March 28: Libya says oil output has recovered since the uprising, reaching 1.45 million barrels per day. Before the revolt, production was about 1.6 million bpd.
• May 8: Ex-rebels invade central government buildings, and are violently expelled. Among their demands is the payment of promised stipends.
• June 4: A militia group briefly takes control of Tripoli airport.
• June 9: Elections pushed back to July 7 for technical and logistical reasons.
• June 11: A rocket is fired at a British diplomatic convoy in Benghazi. Earlier such attacks have targeted the US embassy, the Red Cross and a UN convoy.
• June 11-20: At least 105 die in tribal fighting in the Nafusa mountains.
• June 24: Tunisia extradites Gaddafi’s ex-premier Baghdadi al-Mahmudi to Libya.
• June 27-30: Nearly 50 die in tribal clashes in Kufra. In February, violence in the southeastern desert town kills more than 100.
• July 1: Demonstrators sack the electoral commission offices in Benghazi in a protest over the electoral code.
• July 7: Voters cast ballots for a national assembly, in the country’s first election for almost half a century.
Main facts about nation’s elections
Polls opened yesterday in Libya’s election for a 200-member General National Congress, the first nationwide vote since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.
• Eligible voters: 3.3 million.
• Registered voters: Almost 2.9 million.
• Not eligible to vote: Officials from Gaddafi’s regime.
• Polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time.
• Results expected within a week of voting.
• Allocation of seats: 100 for Tripoli and the west, 60 for Benghazi and the east, 40 for the southwest.
• Candidates seeking election: About 3,700, including 585 women.
• Main contenders: Muslim Brotherhood (Islamists), Al-Watan (Salafis and other Islamists), Alliance of National Forces (secular), National Front (veteran opposition to Gaddafi), National Centrist (former finance minister Ali Tarhouni).
• Next steps: New Assembly appoints cabinet within 30 days. A second election for a 60-member body to write a new constitution. Referendum on constitution. Election for new parliament in 2013.