Libyan voters were voting yesterday to elect a new Parliament that officials hope will finally restore order three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.
Libya is still struggling to make its transition into a stable democracy after four decades of one-man rule. The country has slid deeper into chaos since a renegade army general opened a campaign against Islamist militants in the east.
Turnout in the election is widely expected to be lower than it was in July 2012, the first free national vote in more than 40 years.
By noon, some 200,000 had cast their vote, election officials said, blaming hot weather. Some 1.5 million voters have registered, roughly half the 2.8 million registered in 2012 after the election commission tightened registration rules.
Some polling stations stayed shut for security reasons in the eastern town of Derna, an Islamist hotspot, Kufra in the southeast, a regular scene of tribal fighting, and the main southern city Sabha, officials said.
Without a functioning government and parliament, Libya is struggling to impose authority over heavily-armed former rebels, militias and tribes that helped oust Gaddafi but who now defy state authority and carve out their own fiefdoms.
Tripoli’s partners in the west hope the vote will help Libya to begin rebuild-ing a viable state. Its nascent army, still in training, is no match for fighters hardened during the eight-month uprising against Gaddafi.
Many Libyans fear the vote will produce just another interim assembly. A special body to draft a new national constitution has still not finished its work, leaving questions over what kind of political system Libya will eventually adopt. To discourage political infighting be-tween parties, which paralysed decision-making and led to a crisis over two rival prime ministers in May, candidates must run as independents rather than as party representatives.
“I am participating again to vote for the House of Representatives so we can rebuild Libya,” said Munira Ashour, a female teacher. “I didn’t vote for any Congressional members who had nominated themselves again because they had had their chances without making any progress.”
We hope that the House of Representatives will make a new start
In Tripoli, former Prime Minister Ali Zeidan made a surprise appearance to cast his vote after returning from Europe, where he had fled when parliament ousted him in March.
“We hope the elections will achieve their goals and that the House of Representatives will make a new start, better than the past,” he told Reuters.
Libya also has a budget crisis. Protests at oilfields and shipping ports by armed militias have reduced oil production, the country’s lifeline, to a trickle.
Divisions need to be bridged between western regions, once favoured by Gaddafi, and the neglected east, where many demand autonomy and a greater share of the nation’s oil wealth.