By Michel Cousins.
Tripoli, 13 December 2013:
Elections for the new municipal council are to take place tomorrow in Ghariyan, in the Jebel . . .[restrict]Nafusa south of Tripoli.
Some 60 percent of the potential electorate has registered to vote. “We’re expecting a good turnout”, said Otman Gajiji, Chairman of the Central Committee for Municipal Council Elections (CCMCE).
Based on the previous two Saturday’s municipal elections elsewhere, the figure is expected to be around 35 percent.
Elections for a new municipal council were also supposed to take place tomorrow in Hawamid, where the Ruwais power station was, until earlier this week, prevented from operating. The gas supply had been turned off by Amazigh activists protesting the fact that the community has had just two seats reserved for it in the 60-member Committee that is to draw up Libya’s new constitution.
The issue has affected the Hawamid poll.
As part of their protest, the Amazigh are boycotting all elections, not just those for the Constitutional Committee. With the new municipality a mix of Arab and Amazigh, and because no Amazigh candidates were standing and no Amazigh were expected to vote, there were concerns that an unrepresentative council could cause problems. Following local calls for the poll to be postponed, CCMCE agreed.
Meanwhile, results for last Saturday’s elections in Zintan, Awjila, Traghen and Wadi Atba are still be evaluated.
Discussions are also continuing in Bint Baya over reactivating the suspended municipal elections there. [/restrict]
