Polling Station - High Turnout In Historic Vote - Libya Election - Bbc News

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The BBC's Wyre Davis says the scorching heat has not deterred voters

Continue reading the main story Libya Crisis

Make or break

Election Q&A

Libyans are 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 has been 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.

Continue reading the main story Analysis

Men and women of all ages have been streaming in at the polling stations throughout Tripoli. At the Noufleen district polling station we're in, women have turned out with the Libyan flag draped around their shoulders and wearing designer sunglasses. It has been a trouble-free affair at this polling station so far, with just one lone old man turned away because he forgot to bring his ID.

"But you know me!" he said to the election official.

For Libya's mostly young population, this is an exciting time. You can see it in their wide grins at the polls as they proudly wave their ink-stained fingers. For the elderly, some of whom last voted almost 50 years ago, it is just as important to be here.

I saw an old man with damaged eyesight, who could barely walk, being ushered in by his son. Other voters quickly brought a chair to him so he could rest and then carried him upstairs to vote, chanting "Allahu Akbar", or "God is great".

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.

Continue reading the main story Libyan elections

2.8 million registered voters from around 3-3.5 million eligible (45% women)

2,639 individual candidates (competing for 120 seats in 69 constituencies)

374 party lists from more than 100 political entities (competing for 80 party seats in 20 constituencies)

559 women registered for party seats (44%)

88 women registered for individual seats (3%)

Source: The UN and the Libyan Electoral High Commission (HNEC)

Libyan voters prepare for change

In pictures: Libya votes

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.