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Tripoli, 25 April:
The head of the High National Election Commission, Uthman Gajiji, has been replaced. Four other members of the commission’s . . .[restrict]executive board have also been dismissed. The move was announced this afternoon, Wednesday. The Commission’s spokesman, Nuri Elabbar, has been appointed to lead it instead.
No reason have been given. However, there have been growing accusations that the commission was moving so slowly as to imperil the 19 June election date. Calls for the elections to be delayed because of it have been growing. Jalil, however, has been determined that they go ahead as scheduled. In a TV interview on Sunday he repeated his instance that they take place according to plan.
Elabbar told Libya Herald this evening that new members of the board were being appointed by the NTC but that he was already at work in his new post.
The Commission was set up under Law No. 3 on 18 January to organize the elections to the 200-member National Congress which will write a new constitution.
On Sunday, Elabbar said that Libyans living abroad would almost certainly not be able to vote in the June elections according because was no database of Libyans abroad and no chance to register them in time
He also confirmed that the commission had decided it would compile its own register of voters for the poll. Registers compiled for local council elections, such in Misrata and currently in Benghazi, would not be used, he said. [/restrict]
