Derna has become the latest town in Libya to announce plans to hold municipal elections. They were formally announced by the . . .[restrict]local council on Tuesday. No date has yet been set.
Derna’s announcement was expected. It sent official observers to the Misrata elections that took place on 20 February to assess the system devised there. Officials in Derna now say that they plan to draw on Misrata’s experience in conducting their poll.
The only other municipality to have held elections in eastern Libya is Al-Abyar, near Benghazi. Elsewhere, apart from Misrata, local elections have been held in Zuara and the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura.
Zliten will hold council elections on 20 March. Benghazi will hold them in April, although the precise date has not yet been announced. Nor had the date for the poll in Beida.
Meanwhile in Derna, funerals took place on Tuesday for 11 of the martyrs whose bodies were among the 157 found in a mass grave in Ben Jawad.
A large gathering of local people gathered late Monday evening to welcome the bodies back. [/restrict]
