By Moutaz Ali.
Tripoli, 28 May, 2014:
A Tripoli revolutionary who formed one of the capital’s first revolutionary brigades is said to be . . .[restrict]leading the race to head Central Tripoli’s newly elected municipal council.
Almahdi Al-Harati was selected to be Mayor of Central Tripoli by the others who, like him, are reported to have won the council elections held on 17 May.
Preliminary results have been announced by the Central Committee for Municipal Council Elections (CCMCE) but not yet the final results, although in almost all cases so far, the latter have been identical to the former.
While there can be no official meeting of those elected to formally choose the mayor until the final result is announced, the choice of Harati was confirmed to the Libya Herald by one of the others elected according to the preliminary results, Mohammed Banon.
Harati came to fame during the revolution and was the first individual to create a brigade of Tripoli fighters. During the war against Qaddafi, Harati was based in the Jebel Nafusa. He later travelled to Syria to take up the struggle against Bashar Assad.
The preliminary results for Tripoli Central Municipal Council at this stage are:
- Almahdi Al-Harati: 2,930 votes
- Naser Al-Keriaw: 1,243 votes
- Mohamed Banon: 813 votes
- Abdurrauf Beitelmal: 745 votes
- Ibrahim Aribi: 686 votes
- Mahmud Elzeguzi: 684 votes
- Ibrahim Al-Shibli: 667 votes
- Women Councillor – Fatima Joma Baghi: 4,275 votes
The ninth councillor, a wounded revolutionary, has not been named in the published preliminary list from the CCMCE.
The number of people who registered to vote in the elections was extremely low, just 25,985 out of a potential quarter of a million, and, of those, 14,727 or 56.7 percent voted. [/restrict]
