[ 2012-07-07 ]

Libyans cast ballots in historic post-Kadhafi vote
TRIPOLI (AFP) - Libyans cast ballots Saturday for
a national assembly, the first election since
Moamer Kadhafi's ouster, after a string of acts of
sabotage that have stoked tensions in the east of
the country.

In Tripoli, polling stations opened on schedule
with queues of voters eager to elect the General
National Congress, which will be at the helm of
the country for a transition period, an AFP
journalist said.

"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 Kadhafi last year -- while
mosques blasted chants of "Allahu Akbar" (God is
greatest).

In the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the
uprising and heartland of elements threatening to
derail the vote, polling stations also opened on
time, another correspondent said.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, who heads a team of 21
European Union observers, said the vote marks a
major milestone in the transition to democracy
after 42-years of dictatorship.

"We believe that to have this election in Libya
less than one year after the fall of Tripoli is an
important achievement," Lambsdorff told AFP.

The EU team had been reinforced in Benghazi
following disruptions, with one female observer
added to the mix to help monitor the women
sections of polling stations.

"We only hope that the situation remains peaceful
across the country. The majority of Libyans want
to vote. Eighty percent want to vote," he added.

The vote may be a very different experience for
residents of Tripoli, which has enjoyed a spell of
calm than for those of cities in eastern Libya
which have been rocked by acts of sabotage and
threats to disrupt the vote.

On Friday, gunfire struck a helicopter in eastern
Libya killing an election worker.

Ian Martin, head of the UN mission to Libya, urged
"all voters to exercise their hard-earned
democratic right to elect their National Congress
representatives" while condemning the deadly
attack.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group has
warned the electoral process in Libya is
"imperilled by armed protesters who... are
threatening to disrupt the vote in the eastern
part of the country."

Also in the run-up to the polls, five oil
facilities have been forced cease production by
gunmen who want greater representation for the
east in the incoming 200-member congress.

Armed protesters on Sunday last week ransacked the
office of the electoral commission in Benghazi.
Arsonists in nearby Ajdabiya later set fire to a
depot with polling material.

The make-up of the congress has been a matter of
heated debate, with political factions such as the
federalist movement calling for more seats.

The outgoing National Transitional Council (NTC)
says seats were distributed according to
demographic considerations, with 100 going to the
west, 60 to the east and 40 to the south.

But factions in the east want an equal split of
seats and have threatened to sabotage the vote if
this demand is not met.

The authorities dismiss such groups as a
disruptive minority, pointing out that more than
2.7 million people, or about 80 percent of the
eligible electorate, have registered to take part
in the poll.

Libya has not seen elections since the era of late
monarch King Idris, whom Kadhafi deposed in a
bloodless coup in 1969.

Parties were banned as an act of treason during
Kadhafi'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 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.

The winds of the Arab Spring that ushered
Islamists into power in neighbouring Tunisia and
Egypt may well bring the same result on Saturday
in the first national election since Kadhafi was
toppled.

A February 2011 uprising ended more than four
decades of the dictator who was killed while on
the run last October.

Source - AFP

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