By Seraj Essul.
Tripoli, 24 June 2014:
The current security situation in Derna has made the prospect of holding tomorrow’s . . .[restrict]elections there impossible, an official in the town has said.
The official told the Libya Herald on condition of strict anonymity that there had been no campaigning in Derna and no publicity for elections to the House of Representatives and that, tomorrow, designated polling stations in the town would remain closed.
He said the head teachers of Derna’s schools had unanimously refused requests by the Higher National Elections Commission (HNEC) to use their schools as electoral centres. Five schools, to be used as polling stations, were bombed and one man killed in Derna ahead of February’s elections to the Constitutional Drafting Committee. Classes were cancelled in the aftermath of the attacks and the town was forced to pay for repairs to the schools in the absence of government funding.
The official said many in Derna could see little point to the elections in the face of the current security crisis. He said the candidates who were standing in the Derna sub constituency were not known in the town and added that the government had consistently refused to take responsibility for the town’s problems.
A resident in Derna, who also asked not to be named, said he had registered to vote but was well aware there would be no elections tomorrow. He said candidates had not been able to campaign because they would immediately become targets.
Another resident said he had not registered to vote and could not see the point given current conditions in the town.
Meanwhile, HNEC member Said Al-Gosbi said the organisation hoped elections would be able to proceed in Derna tomorrow and that technically the commission was prepared for voting there. He said, however, on the question of security in the town that this was out of their hands. He added that if voting did not go ahead in Derna tomorrow that elections would have to be held at a later date.
He said all but 16 of greater Derna’s roughly 50 polling centres had been supplied with elections materials and added that in the case of any security problems HNEC staff were under instructions to immediately close their polling centres. He said the safety of voters and elections’ staff was HNEC’s number one priority.
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