Libyan parliamentary election - discussion

[hellheaven1987]

I am surprised no one opens a thread about this, since the election would be closed at next Saturday and the people of Libya would have their first parliament after the civil war. Strange enough, even BBC has little news about this important election, like Libya does not exist after all the mess NTC made last year.

Anyway, apartly some people of Benghazi are so unhappy that they have to attack the election office.

Protesters demanding greater autonomy for eastern Libya have ransacked the offices of Libya's electoral authority in Benghazi, witnesses say.

About 300 people chanting pro-autonomy slogans took ballot boxes out of the building and burnt election papers in the street, a witness told Reuters.

Libya is to elect a new parliament on Saturday, in the first democratic polls since the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

Pro-autonomy leaders in eastern Libya have called for a boycott of the vote.

They want eastern Libya to be given a larger share of seats in the new 200-member legislature, which is tasked with drawing up a constitution.

Libya's electoral law apportions 60 seats to eastern Libya and 102 to the west, with 38 going to the rest of the country.

"A group of people entered the commission's premises, ransacked the offices and destroyed what they found inside the building," the Benghazi head of the High National Election Commission, Jamal Bukrin, told AFP.

The call to boycott Saturday's vote was made by a group that has proclaimed itself the authority of a semi-autonomous territory in Cyrenaica, or eastern Libya.

Source

Well, hopefully this election can be complete despite all the violence; by the way, when is the president election for Libya?

[Celsius]

This is why Africa can't have nice things.

[fkizz]

The media blackout in Lybia after Gadaffi's defeat was surprising.

But well, implating democracy is always a rocky process, no matter the country.

For the france to have a short lived republic before napoleon, the french revolution was needed, with many people decapitated on the guillotine. It ain't easy.

[Admiral Piett]

I think Cyrenica has very valid concerns about remaining a part of a unified Libyan state. They have endured half a century of neglect, disrepair, and ill treatment from Tripoltania.

[fkizz]

I think Cyrenica has very valid concerns about remaining a part of a unified Libyan state. They have endured half a century of neglect, disrepair, and ill treatment from Tripoltania.

Tribalist policies that might (or not) remain after democracy transition.

[Admiral Piett]

Tribalist policies that might (or not) remain after democracy transition.

Sure, but fear of continued oppression as well.

[Fluttershy]

bomb them all, allah will know his own

[hellheaven1987]

Interesting read.

Update: Rival Libyan tribes feud ahead of 'crucial' polls

The BBC has seen first-hand evidence of torture and illegal detention as rival Libyan tribes clash in the west of the country.

Eight months after the death of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, some observers say his removal has exposed dangerous divisions in a weak and fragmented country, which is only a week away from its first nationwide elections.

This may be a "new" Libya but some things have a depressingly familiar feel.

In the western mountain town of Zintan, several tribal elders gather in the courtyard of a mosque to mourn the death of Abdul Salam Aghuz.

From still pictures and a video they play on a laptop computer, I can clearly see that the 49-year-old father of nine died a very painful death. There is heavy bruising on his body and his head has been badly beaten.

Aghuz was tortured, not by Col Gaddafi's henchmen, but by a rival tribe from a nearby town.

"Look", says the tribal elder, Abdullah Rama Aghuz, who beckons me to sit next to him on the floor.

"This doctor's report says he was beaten. His hands and feet were tied before they killed him."

Source

[liamb109]

This could well turn into a major separatist movement like the tuareg. But, we'll find out. A lot of Libya has a strong tribal structure, we could end up in the end with a tribal zone, like in Pakistan which is basically ungoverned, for the most part as well as the east possibly splitting off. But again, we'll find out soon.

[magpie]

Libya is just an embarrassment to the Euro power,s that were so gungho, So its best swept under the carpet.
Lots of shooting still going on in that country.

[hellheaven1987]

Update: Libya election materials destroyed in fire attack

A fire has destroyed election materials in Libya, days ahead of the first elections since Col Muammar Gaddafi was toppled as leader last year.

Libyan officials said the fire had destroyed ballot boxes and papers at a depot in the eastern city of Ajdabiya.

A security source said the fire is being investigated as a suspected arson attack, according to Reuters.

It comes less than a week after the ransacking of electoral commission offices in Benghazi, north of Ajdabiya.

An unnamed electoral official said the fire in Ajdabiya happened before sunrise on Thursday, according to AFP news.

"The fire happened before sunrise. All the material, including ballot boxes and ballots, was destroyed," the official was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the head of the electoral commission in Benghazi, Jamal Bugrin said voting may be delayed in that district if replacement materials could not be sourced, said AFP.

Pro-autonomy leaders in eastern Libya earlier called for a boycott of the election.

They said eastern Libya should be given a larger share of seats in the new 200-member legislature, which is tasked with drawing up a constitution.

The country's electoral law allows 60 seats to be taken by candidates in eastern Libya.

Source

[Dalarna3]

As long as the new government is beholden to NATO, it should all be good.

[Heathen Hammer]

I'm sure that Libya will become a healthy free democracy like Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Iran.

[Vanoi]

I'm sure that Libya will become a healthy free democracy like Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Iran.

Becoming a democracy isn't easy. Many countries screwed up before they got it right.

[Heathen Hammer]

Becoming a democracy isn't easy. Many countries screwed up before they got it right.

Or never got it right. Bombing the out of the country doesn't make it democratic. Even if bombers came from democratic countries.

Who cares? The white masters have carried out their noble mission and bombed them out of dictatorship. Now just forget it and leave it to Chevron and Shell.
There is Syria waiting now! And Iran! And Saudi Arabia!

Indeed, as long as Libyans learn that their real masters are in North America and Europe, their society could be considered democratic.

[King Gambrinus]

Indeed, as long as Libyans learn that their real masters are in North America and Europe, their society could be considered democratic.

Are you still supporting Gaddafi?


And I doubt the West is jumping with joy and the thought of a new set of radical Islamists who will look to a scapegoat for their problems...

[motiv-8]

I'm sure that Libya will become a healthy free democracy like Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Iran.

Is there any reason you put these three countries, which are all wildly separate (and one of them actually does have free democracy and a working constitution, bizarrely), or is anything Islamic suddenly the same?

There's so many crybabies in this thread with so much misplaced angst it's ridiculous.

[Heathen Hammer]

Is there any reason you put these three countries, which are all wildly separate (and one of them actually does have free democracy and a working constitution, bizarrely), or is anything Islamic suddenly the same?

There's so many crybabies in this thread with so much misplaced angst it's ridiculous.

One of them is an Islamic Theocratic Republic, other two are monarchies with theocratic tendencies.

Are you still supporting Gaddafi?


And I doubt the West is jumping with joy and the thought of a new set of radical Islamists who will look to a scapegoat for their problems...

What do you mean by "West" here? Western politicians seem to be quite happy of radical Islamists as long as they obey to their masters.

[Blaze86420]

One of them is an Islamic Theocratic Republic, other two are monarchies with theocratic tendencies.

But they have good economies so it's ok, I mean that's pretty much the logic you used to defend Gaddafi; Libya had the best living conditions in Africa (what a ing accomplishment) therefore tyranny and corruption are excusable.

[Heathen Hammer]

But they have good economies so it's ok, I mean that's pretty much the logic you used to defend Gaddafi; Libya had the best living conditions in Africa (what a ing accomplishment) therefore tyranny and corruption are excusable.

Good economies for who? Foreign corporations or oil sheikhs?