Libya's Elections Are Just a Step on Long Road to Healing
As Libyans prepare to vote for the first time since 1965, uncertainty plagues the elections. No absentee ballots will be counted, leaving refugees from Libya's recent turmoil without a voice in the process, and lack of security remains a threat. Mustafa Fetouri writes that the country may need a reconciliation process before democracy can prevail.
On Saturday, July 7, Libyans will cast their votes in the first free elections since 1965. The hope is that the elections will lead to a stable political process, which will eventually lead to a new democratic government. Libyans appear to be praying to God they will not be disappointed.
Across the country people have high hopes hanging on the first national election. Libya is a country tired of corruption and lack of leadership. Above all, the Libyan people are tired of ineffective government, bloodshed, fighting and lack of security in their daily lives. Libyans are especially eager to go to the polls in order to replace the current government and National Transitional Council (NTC) who created it.
But uncertainty looms over the elections and, indeed, the post-election political developments. Soon it’ll be clear what kind of post-election Libya will emerge. The historic elections are being contested by some 349 political entities, including 142 officially registered political parties plus some 4000 individuals running as independent contestants. They are all fighting over 200 seats in the constituent assembly called the National Congress (GNC.) The new GNC is supposed to write a new constitution, paving the way for full-blown elections in 2013. Yet not all of Libya is voting, and large segments of the population are not able to cast a vote.
Last February I spoke to Sheik Ali, a tribal leader from my home town Bani Walid. He said elections “mean nothing to us” because people will always vote for their fellow tribesmen. When I called him for this article he was even more pessimistic than he was four months ago, but equally determined to see a “new Libya” that is not the NTC, its cronies or agents. “Anyone paid by Qatar and NATO to destroy our country is nothing but an agent, and NTC is the biggest of them all,” Ali said.
