By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 26 February 2012:
HNEC workers in Murzuk and Obari have said voting has again been impeded by forced closures . . .[restrict]of polling stations and problems with ballot papers, making elections unlikely.
HNEC coordinator for administration and finance in Obari, Abdel Kareem Al-Shareef Boya, told the Libya Herald this afternoon that six polling stations out of 26 had been closed in his district. It was likely that the rest would have to shut soon, he added.
Tuareg groups had entered the six polling stations in central Obari and asked staff to leave, he said. In last week’s elections the ethnic minority used force and attacked the centres but Boya explained this time there had been no struggle. He added that he did not think elections would be possible in the future, describing Tuareg boycotters as “relentless”.
In Murzuk, where last week Tebu stopped ballot papers from arriving in the town, HNEC’s chief administrator for the area, Adel Al-Saheen, said none of Murzuk’s four polling centres had opened because ballot papers had not arrived, again because of Tebu blockades.
In Kufra, the Tebu boycott of elections has continued, meaning voting cannot take place for Adjabiya’s one ethnic minority seat. The seven Tebu candidates in Kufra for the Drafting Committee have all withdrawn from the race for this seat over the last seven days.
Local Tebu resident in Kufra Mohammed Rezzi said the polling centre at Al-Qadissiya High School had not opened today and Tebu had continued their boycott, with a number of civil society organisations within the ethnic minority community reiterating their support.
Delegates from the National Tebu Assembly (NTA) met yesterday with representatives from the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) where they discussed the Tebu boycott.
NTA chairmen Adem Rami Karki said the Assembly had discussed their conditions for participation in the Constitutional Committee and added that the Tebu candidates could still be elected in a re-run of voting on a later date and this would still be perfectly legal. He said, however, this would not happen until the ethic minority groups were given guarantees that their rights would be protected in the constitution. [/restrict]
