2012 Libyan parliamentary election
Elections for a General National Congress (GNC)[1] were held in Libya on 7 July 2012, having been postponed from 19 June.[2][3][4] They were the first elections since the overthrow and death of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi a year earlier, the first free national elections since 1952,[4] and only the second free national elections since Libya gained independence in 1951.
Once elected, the General National Congress was to appoint a Prime Minister and Cabinet.[5] The GNC was originally to be charged with appointing a Constituent Assembly to draw up Libya's new constitution in an interim period of 18–22 months before a constitutional referendum and new elections on that basis, but the National Transitional Council (NTC) announced on 5 July that the Assembly would instead be directly elected at a later date.[4]
Despite threats of a boycott, a majority of Libyans (61.58%)[6] cast a ballot. However, the election was marred by violence, protests and a number of deaths.[7][8]
Campaign[edit]
A total of 374 party lists registered to contest the 80 party list seats, together with 2,639 candidates for the 120 constituency seats.[17] The four parties that were expected to dominate the election are the National Front Party, the Justice and Construction Party, the National or Homeland Party and the National Forces Alliance. The National Front Party is linked to the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL), a former anti-Gaddafi resistance group formed in the 1980s. It is led by Mohamed el-Magariaf, an intellectual based in Eastern Libya. The Justice and Construction Party is the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya. The Homeland Party is an Islamist party as well, led by the Islamic cleric Ali al-Sallabi and Abdelhakim Belhadj, the former emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). The National Forces Alliance is a liberal umbrella coalition around ex-interim prime minister Mahmoud Jibril, who himself did not run for a seat in the GNC.[22][23]
The Libyan Popular National Movement, a political party supporting the policies of Gaddafi, was banned from participating in the elections.
Conduct[edit]
Voting was disrupted in some parts of the country, with 6% of the 6,629 polling stations unable to open normally.[5][24] However all but eight polling stations managed to open up for voters during the day and the remaining eight, including two in the Kufra area, which had seen clashes between Toubous and government forces, opened the following day.[25] In the Benghazi area a polling station was attacked by activists seeking autonomy for the east of the country and an election official was killed by a gun attack on a helicopter carrying voting materials on the day before the election.[5] In eastern Libya former rebels closed five oil terminals at Brega, Ra's Lanuf and Sidra for 48 hours in an attempt to disrupt the elections.[5][26] In Ajdabiya a pro-federalism protester was shot dead by locals when he tried to steal a ballot box from a polling station.[27] Officials with the HNEC were denied access to Bani Walid by tribal Gaddafi loyalists who control the city, and could not monitor the voting process.[28]
Around 1.7 million of 2.8 million registered voters participated in the elections.[25]