Jubilation as Libyans vote for first time in decades

By Nehal El-Sherif, dpa
Published on 08.07.2012

   Benghazi, Libya (dpa) - Libyans celebrated the country's first election on Saturday after decades of undemocratic rule under the late Moamer Gaddafi, despite scattered violence in eastern Libya.

   Dozens cheered with the national flag and honked their cars until the late hours of the day in the main streets in Benghazi. The celebration, which began at noon, saw voters congratulating each other and distributing sweets and chocolates at polling stations.

   "For Libya's sake," said Yasmin Moftah, 53, as she entered a polling station in the eastern city of Benghazi, birthplace of the uprising against Gaddafi.

   Election officials began to count the vote in most polling stations around an hour after balloting ended at 8 pm (1800 GMT).

   Nuri al-Abbar, chairman of the Election Commission, said that preliminary numbers put turnout around 60 per cent, as many voters queued at polling stations to elect a 200-seat National Congress tasked with appointing a new government.

   Around 2.8 million Libyans registered to elect the assembly, which will consist of 120 directly elected members and 80 from contenders selected by political parties. Results are not expected for several days.

   Some 2,500 candidates were vying for the directly elected seats, with 1,202 names on the party lists.

   "I came to exert my right to vote and take part in the democratic process here, which we were banned from doing for around half a century," said Siraj al-Shaikhi, 26, flashing his inked finger after casting his ballot.


   In some parts of the city, celebrations were replaced by gunshots as a small group of anti-election easterners, who support reviving Libya's federal system, protested and looted ballot boxes from a school and then burnt them.

   One person was killed and one was in coma after they were wounded in a random shooting in Benghazi, activists said.

   Shortly after the news of the shooting spread, security reinforcements arrived to secure the election commission headquarters in Benghazi. A senior member of the Special Forces told dpa that around 2,500 extra security personnel were deployed in Benghazi in the afternoon.

   The commission headquarters was stormed earlier in the week by angry demonstrators who burnt election materials to protest what they said was unfair distribution of seats.

   The western region including Tripoli has been allocated 106 seats. The eastern region, including the second-largest city, Benghazi, has 60 seats. The remaining seats are allocated to those representing residents of thinly populated southern Libya.

   the general mood was good in the capital Tripoli.

   Voters gathered in the city's Martyr's Square to celebrate, despite the soaring heat. The square, known as the Green Square during Gaddafi's reign, is where his supporters rallied during the conflict.

   US Senator John McCain told reporters during a visit to Tripoli that the polls were a "historic day for the people of Libya."

   "I was honoured and moved to witness this remarkable achievement by Libyans," he said.

   Many voters lined up outside polling stations. A Tripoli resident said he had waited for 90 minutes before being able to vote.

   "Everything is well-organized, and there are no reports of any disturbances here in Tripoli," Mohamed Ghoula, spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Construction Party, told dpa.

   Observers in polling stations said there were no complaints.

   Fourteen foreign monitoring groups and around 10,000 local monitors were observing the polls across Libya.

   Voting was going smoothly in the south-western city of Sabha, local media reported.

   The government declared Saturday and Sunday public holidays to encourage people to vote.