Occupied Libya Election May Be Delayed

African women held prisoner by US-trained counter-revolutionary rebels now roaming Libya. The NATO-led rebels are being financed by imperialism and its agents., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Libya Election Commissioner Says May Delay Parliamentary Vote

By Saleh Sarrar and Chris Stephen
May 29, 2012

Libya’s parliamentary elections may be delayed for a “few days” beyond their scheduled June 19 deadline, said Tahir Graf, one of the country’s 13 election commissioners.

The elections, billed as the first free national elections in at least four decades, will see a national parliament elected with the task of appointing a commission to draft Libya’s constitution.

While the National Transitional Council, Libya’s interim rulers, had said the elections must be held by June 19, the “date can slip by a few days,” Graf said in an interview in Tripoli. He said some potential candidates were appealing against their disqualification while others needed more time to campaign.

Of the 200 seats in the assembly, 120 have been set aside for individual candidates while the rest are earmarked for party lists. Roughly half of the seats set aside for parties are supposed to be occupied by women.

Graf said that 2.75 million of the 3.5 million eligible voters have registered to cast their ballot. About 45 percent of registered voters were women.

To contact the reporter on this story: Saleh Sarrar in Tripoli via Cairo at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden in Dubai at [email protected]