Libya election: Count under way after historic vote

Vote-counting is under way after Libya held its first free national election for 60 years on Saturday.

Fireworks were set off in the capital Tripoli and the second city, Benghazi, after voting ended on Saturday evening.

The election was largely peaceful, but there were pockets of unrest in the east, where there are fears the region will be under-represented in the new temporary assembly being elected.

Early results suggested a turnout of about 60%, officials said.

Saturday - Libyans have been voting in their first free national election for 60 years.

They are selecting a temporary assembly which will have the task of picking a cabinet and a prime minister.

But voting was disrupted by unrest in some areas, particularly the east. Officials say 101 of more than 1,500 polling stations were unable to open.

Nevertheless, overall turnout has been described as high, with voters choosing their first government since Col Gaddafi came to power in 1969.

Few Libyans remember their last national vote in 1965, when no political parties were allowed.

Even fewer took part in their country's first parliamentary elections in February 1952, shortly after independence.

'Free at last'

Polls opened at 08:00 (06:00 GMT), with reports of queues forming outside polling stations in the capital Tripoli.

"I feel free at last. It's a feeling I cannot describe: Like a human being," Asmaddin Arifi told the BBC.

The run-up to Saturday's vote has been overshadowed by violence and deep regional divisions. An electoral worker died on the eve of the vote when gunmen attacked a helicopter near the eastern city of Benghazi.

A polling station in the city was attacked on Saturday by pro-autonomy activists, who seized electoral papers and ballot boxes.

A BBC Arabic reporter in the city says the security forces did not intervene.

Armed men also stopped voters casting their ballots in the port town of Ras Lanuf.

But the head of the election commission Nuri al-Abbar said that 94% of polling stations across the country had opened normally.

UN Libya envoy Ian Martin said the disruption in the east was unlikely to undermine the credibility of the election.

Many people in eastern Libya are concerned that the oil-rich area will be under-represented in the assembly and marginalised as it was during Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule.

The region has been allotted only 60 seats in the 200-seat assembly, while the west will have 100 seats and the south 40, under the system devised by the outgoing National Transitional Council (NTC).

Election officials acknowledged that the election was imperfect but insisted it was crucial for the vote to go ahead.

"It's important for the stability of the country," Salim Ben Tahir from the National Election Commission told the BBC.

"We can do it better in the future but the NTC and the current government are losing legitimacy. People aren't respecting them any more and things are getting out of hand."

Oil shutdown

Some former rebels have tried to derail the vote by targeting the oil industry, large parts of which are located in the east.

They have shut down several oil terminals, including those at Brega, Ras Lanouf and Sidra, and a significant part of Libya's oil exporting capacity has been disrupted.

In an attempt to defuse the situation, the NTC has said the new parliament will no longer be responsible for naming the panel that will draft Libya's new constitution.

The 60-member committee will be elected in a separate vote at a later date.

Around 2.9 million people are eligible to vote for the 2,600 candidates standing for the new General National Congress, less than a year after Col Gaddafi was toppled after an eight-month uprising.

There are countless political parties taking part in the election but the biggest to emerge so far is the Justice and Construction Party, made up mostly of Muslim Brotherhood members.