Tripoli, 5 July:
The main storage centre for election materials was burned down by suspected federalist arsonists in Ajdabiya this morning, destroying . . .[restrict]a large quantity of election materials including ballot boxes and voting cards.
The attack, which comes just two days ahead of Saturday’s historic vote, is the latest manifestation of disquiet amongst federalists in eastern Libya.
Last Sunday, pro-federalist demonstrators also attacked the HNEC offices in Benghazi and Tobruk, destroying computers and election materials in the former and reportedly beating the deputy director of the latter.
Federalist sentiment in Ajdabiya has been comparatively strong in recent months. On 1 June, a large rally took place to commemorate the 63rd anniversary declaration of independence by the Emirate of Cyrenaica in 1949.
That meeting was attended by Ahmed Zubair Senussi, a cousin of the late king and leader of the self-proclaimed Cyrenaica Transitional Council (CTC) which wants a federal Libya. [/restrict]
