Libyans will vote on Saturday in the country’s first free general elections in more than 40 years and the first polls since the downfall and death of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011.
Saturday’s vote, in which Libyans will elect a 200-member transitional national assembly, will pave the way for a new constitution which Libyans hope will help transform the country into a democratic state after decades of autocratic rule.
Political parties were banned in Libya under Gaddafi, and the country has not held nationwide elections since the 1960s.
Gaddafi died after being captured by Libyan rebels in his home town of Sirte on October 20, 2011. His death marked the end of a bloody nine-month-long revolt that broke out in February 2011, triggered by popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, and has claimed thousands of lives.
Following Gaddafi’s fall, Libya’s opposition leaders formed the National Transitional Council, which has since been in power, trying to maintain stability in the North African country marred by deepening regional and tribal divisions that have often erupted into violence.
More than 4,000 candidates are running for seats in the transitional parliament, according to election authorities. Of the 200 seats up for grabs, 120 will go to independent candidates and 80 to members of political parties.
On Thursday, tribal leaders who have sought semiautonomy for oil-rich eastern Libya declared that they would boycott the elections, claiming that the current allocation of parliamentary seats is unfair and that the vote results would fail to guarantee equal rights for all Libyan regions.
According to a current plan, the north-western part of the country, Tripolitania, will be given 109 seats, the eastern part, Cyrenaica, will get 60 seats, and the southern-western Fezzan region will get 31 mandates.
On the eve of the vote, Fathi al-Baja, who heads the National Transitional Council’s committee for political and foreign affairs, warned that there was a risk of “civil war” in Libya if the elections were disrupted.
A state of emergency declared in Libya on Wednesday will be in place until the end of the vote.
