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Tripoli, 11 July:
Mahmoud Jibril’s National Forces Alliance is on course to take seven out of the 11 seats in the eastern . . .[restrict]city of Benghazi, according to results released this evening by the HNEC.
With 70 per cent of the ballots counted so far, the NFA has taken a massive 95,733 votes, with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice & Construction Party trailing in second with just 16,143 votes. It is expected to take one of the 11 Benghazi seats. The National Front, the Message Party and the Nation Party are also in line to pick up a seat each in the city.
This translates to 65 per cent of the vote for the NFA as against just 11 per cent for Justice & Construction. The National Front is currently in third place with 10,195 votes (7%), followed by the Message Party in fourth with 5,938 votes (4%) and the Nation Party in fifth with 3,322 votes (2%).
Twenty parties stood for election in the city.
Prior to Saturday’s elections, many observers had concluded that the NFA would not perform well in Benghazi and that the city would emerge as a stronghold for more avowedly Islamist factions such as Justice & Construction and the Nation Party.
Whilst individual seats are calculated on a simple First Past the Post (FPTP) system, seats for the party lists are being calculated according to a complex formula which the Libya Herald has just recently fathomed and will not attempt to explain here.
Votes are still being counted, with the final results not expected before 14-15 June. [/restrict]
