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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]
A draft election law was published on 1 January 2012 on the website of the High National Election Commission (HNEC), after which public comments were accepted. The draft law proposed electing 200 representatives, of which at least 10% should be women, unless fewer than 10% of candidates were women. Members of the NTC and Jamahiriya government members, including relatives of Muammar Gaddafi, were barred from running. [9] [10]
The second draft abolished the women's quota and allowed local NTC council members to run in the election; it also changed the electoral system from countrywide to constituency-based. [11] Following further protests against restrictions for dual nationals and other issues, the release of the electoral law was again postponed to 28 January 2012. [12] The NTC also sought the input of the Libyan Women's Platform for Peace, who had proposed an alternative electoral law and criticized the official draft on four key points relating to dual nationals, lack of a women's quota, inadequate countermeasures against corruption and the risk of incentivizing tribal party formation. [13] [ third-party source needed ]
A new electoral law was finally drafted on 28–29 January 2012. The election system will be a form of parallel voting, with 64 constituency seats (with independent candidates only) and 136 list seats for party lists. Lists will have to alternate between male and female candidates, in effect ensuring a women's quota. The age required to stand for election was lowered to 21 years, and citizens with dual nationality will be allowed to vote and run in the election. [14] [15] Further changes were later made, changing the ratio to 120 constituency seats and 80 list seats, reportedly in an attempt to reduce the Muslim Brotherhood's influence in the new parliament. [16] The 120 constituency seats would be elected from 69 constituencies, whilst the 80 list seats would be elected in 20 constituencies. [17]
Registration of voters, parties participating in elections and independent candidates started at 1 May, and was due to finish on 14 May. However, following a call for a boycott of the process by the Council of Cyrenaica, which is seeking autonomy for parts of eastern Libya around the city of Benghazi, the deadline was extended until 21 May. [18] In total 2,865,937 voters, or 80% of the estimated 3 million to 3.5 million electorate, registered for the elections. [5] The registration process was supervised by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya. [19]
Minority groups, such as the Tawerghans, who had been accused of supporting former leader Muammar Gaddafi, said that the election was futile as they are marginalised. They also added that voter registration was difficult. [20] Yet about 90 percent of Tawerghans living in Janzour Naval Academy refugee camp registered to vote. [21]
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.[ citation needed ]
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]
According to first counts, the liberal National Forces Alliance did well in the northern areas except Misrata, whereas the race was more even in the south. The other key contenders were the Islamic Justice and Construction Party, which came in second, and Al-Watan, which in the end won no seats at all. [29]
On 17 July, the High National Election Commission announced provisional results. In the 80 proportional seats, Mahmoud Jibril's National Forces Alliance (NFA) received 48.1%, winning 39 seats. This was followed by the Justice and Construction Party (JCP), which received 10.3% and 17 seats and third was the National Front Party with 4.1% and three seats. The Union for the Homeland and the National Centrist Party also took two seats, as did the Wadi Al-Hayah Party for Democracy and Development. Fifteen other parties won one party list seat each. [30] [31]
The affiliation of the 120 independents is obscure but the election for Prime Minister gave some indication: in the first round Mahmoud Jibril (NFA) got 86 votes, Mustafa Abushagur (independent) got 55 votes and Awad Barasi (JCP) got 41 votes. [32] Then Abushagur defeated Jibril with 96 to 94. It is estimated that 25 independents are associated with the NFA, 17 with Justice and Construction, and 23 are Salafis. [33]
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
National Forces Alliance | 714,769 | 48.14 | 39 | |
Justice and Construction Party | 152,441 | 10.27 | 17 | |
Union for Homeland | 66,772 | 4.50 | 2 | |
National Front Party | 60,592 | 4.08 | 3 | |
National Centrist Party | 59,417 | 4.00 | 2 | |
Homeland Party | 51,292 | 3.45 | 0 | |
Moderate Ummah Assembly | 21,825 | 1.47 | 1 | |
Authenticity and Renewal | 18,745 | 1.26 | 1 | |
National Party For Development and Welfare | 17,158 | 1.16 | 1 | |
Al-Hekma (Wisdom) Party | 17,129 | 1.15 | 1 | |
Authenticity and Progress | 13,679 | 0.92 | 1 | |
Libyan National Democratic Party | 13,092 | 0.88 | 1 | |
National Parties Alliance | 12,735 | 0.86 | 1 | |
Ar-Resalah (The Message) | 7,860 | 0.53 | 1 | |
Centrist Youth Party | 7,319 | 0.49 | 1 | |
Wadi Al-Hayah Party | 6,947 | 0.47 | 2 | |
Libya – The Hope | 6,093 | 0.41 | 1 | |
Labaika National Party | 3,472 | 0.23 | 1 | |
Libyan Party for Liberty and Development | 2,691 | 0.18 | 1 | |
Arrakeeza (The Foundation) | 1,525 | 0.10 | 1 | |
Nation and Prosperity | 1,400 | 0.09 | 1 | |
National Party of Wadi ash-Shati' | 1,355 | 0.09 | 1 | |
Other parties | 226,415 | 15.25 | 0 | |
Independents | 120 | |||
Total | 1,484,723 | 100.00 | 200 | |
Valid votes | 1,484,723 | 84.13 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 280,117 | 15.87 | ||
Total votes | 1,764,840 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 2,865,937 | 61.58 | ||
Source: Gender Concerns International |
Libya's history involves its rich mix of ethnic groups, including the indigenous Berbers/Amazigh people. Amazigh have been present throughout the entire history of the country. For most of its history, Libya has been subjected to varying degrees of foreign control, from Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The politics of Libya has been in an uncertain state since the collapse of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in 2011 and a recent civil war and various jihadists and tribal elements controlling parts of the country.
The National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL) was a political opposition group active during the rule of the Gaddafi regime in Libya. It was formed in 1981 and called for major liberalising reforms such as democratic elections, a free press, and the separation of powers. During the 1980s, it pursued a campaign of armed opposition to the Gaddafi regime and made several coup attempts, the most notable being its 1984 armed assault on Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli. After the failure of this and several other coup attempts the group largely abandoned militancy, and instead used peaceful tactics to promote reform in Libya; in 2005, the NFSL joined with six other groups to form the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition.
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The Libyan Civil War began on 17 February 2011 as a civil protest and later evolved into a widespread uprising. By mid-August, anti-Gaddafi forces effectively supported by a NATO-led international coalition were ascendant in Tripolitania, breaking out of the restive Nafusa Mountains in the south to mount an offensive toward the coast and advancing from Misrata on loyalist-held cities and villages from the north and east.
The National Transitional Council (NTC) was a transitional government established in the 2011 Libyan civil war. The rebel forces overthrew the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya of Muammar Gaddafi. The NTC governed Libya for a period of ten months after the end of the war, holding elections to a General National Congress on 7 July 2012, and handing power to the newly elected assembly on 8 August.
Mahmoud Jibril el-Warfally, also transcribed Jabril or Jebril or Gebril, was a Libyan politician who served as the interim Prime Minister of Libya for seven and a half months during the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi and the Libyan Civil War, chairing the executive board of the National Transitional Council (NTC) from 5 March to 23 October 2011. He also served as the Head of International Affairs. As of July 2012, Jibril was the head of one of the largest political parties in Libya, the National Forces Alliance.
Ali Abdussalam Tarhouni is a Libyan economist and politician. Tarhouni served as the minister for oil and finance on the National Transitional Council, the provisional governing authority in Libya, from 23 March to 22 November 2011. He acted in the capacity of interim prime minister of Libya during the departure of outgoing incumbent Mahmoud Jibril from 23 October 2011 until Abdurrahim El-Keib was formally named to succeed Jibril on 31 October.
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The killing of Muammar Gaddafi took place on 20 October 2011 after the Battle of Sirte. Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, was captured by NTC forces and executed shortly afterwards.
Mohammed Yousef el-Magariaf or, as he writes on his official website, Dr. Mohamed Yusuf Al Magariaf, is a Libyan politician who served as the President of the General National Congress from its first meeting in August 2012 until his resignation in May 2013. In this role he was effectively Libya's de facto head of state, until his resignation in May 2013.
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The National Front Party is a political party in Libya, formed in May 2012. It is the successor to the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, an anti-Gaddafi resistance movement founded in 1981. Its ideology is considered liberal and progressive, and Libya Herald writer George Grant described the party as "arguably the most liberal-leaning of all in Congress."
The General National Congress or General National Council was the legislative authority of Libya for two years following the end of the First Libyan Civil War. It was elected by popular vote on 7 July 2012, and took power from the National Transitional Council on 8 August.
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