By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 24 February 2014:
The head of the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) Nuri Elabbar has called on the General . . .[restrict]National Congress (GNC) and the government to urgently secure tomorrow’s voting for the Constitutional Drafting Committee.
Elabbar said HNEC had only technical and logistical roles to play in creating a suitable environment for voting to take place at polling centres where violence or blockades prevented votes being cast last week.
“The continued silence and lack of reaction by all official bodies, despite our repeated calls, have left HNEC concerned that the authorities will not be able to provide suitable security in time for tomorrow,” said Elabbar.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday he said that although the Commission was determined to hold elections on time, he said this could not be achieved without the full support and cooperation of the government and the GNC.
If polling stations could not be secured, Elabbar said, the elections would be stopped.
Security concerns and blockades disrupting delivery of ballot papers prevented voting taking place in 81 polling centres on Thursday. HNEC then had 24 hours to announce a second date for voting, within a seven-day time-frame. It does not have the legal authority to call for a third round of voting and, if elections are not able to take place tomorrow, Congress will have to make a decision on how to proceed.
If elections could not take place tomorrow, Elabbar said, the blame would lie with the GNC and the government.
He indicated that they were also responsible for the problems that hampered last week’s elections. Congress had failed to address the demands of ethnic groups, he said, which led to disruption of the elections in the two constituencies of Ubari and Murzuq, as well as polling centres in Kufra. Necessary security was also not provided for centres in vulnerable areas including Derna, he added. [/restrict]
