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Tripoli, 5 May:
Calls by Cyrenaica federalists for people in eastern Libya to boycott the 19 June elections and not register to . . .[restrict]vote for them are falling on deaf ears, politicians claim.
“All the indications are that more people are registering in the east of the country than in the west,” said the National Solidarity Party’s secretary general Ashraf Shah. The NSP is one of the main parties in Mahmoud Jibril’s National Alliance.
Yesterday, Friday, Ahmed Al-Zuhair Senussi, who heads the self-declared Cyrenaica Transitional Council urged people not to vote in elections to the National Conference which act as Libya’s parliament for a year and draw up a new constitution.
“We don’t want to be part of the national congress. It’s just another form of marginalization by the West,” Al-Zubair was quoted as saying.
His council is, however, effectively ignored by all the local authorities in the east, and is widely thought to have less than 10 percent support, although it does have its own milita force. When in March, tribal and other leader set up the Cyrenaica council it prompted mass demonstrations against it across the country, including the Cyrenaica region itself. Many saw it as an attempt to split Libya. The federalists deny this is their objective.
Voter registration started on Tuesday and ends on 14 May. [/restrict]
