European Forum

First ever elections held in Libyan city

On 20 February the citizens of the Libyan city Misrata for the first time in more then 40 years experienced the freedom to vote, as the third-largest city in Libya held local elections to select members for a new city council. The local elections in Misrata are the first large-scale democratic elections that are held in a Libyan city after the fall of colonel Gaddhafi. With the election the people of Misrata are hoping to set a standard for the rest of the country, as Libya prepares for general elections that will be held in June this year.

Enforced election
Under Gaddhafi’s rule elections were banned as an "invention of the West." The local elections are now an example of how Libya is splintering into largely autonomous city-states, with powerful local militias and emerging local governments that at best have loose ties to the Tripoli-based central government known as the National Transitional Council. So far, cities like Misrata are pushing ahead even faster with the transition to democracy than the national government is.

The local election was organized after revolutionaries accused the self-appointed city council that came to power early in the uprising last year of deeply rooted corruption, allegations which the council head denied. After the revolutionaries staged a sit-in on the council’s steps, the members of the former city council resigned and called for new elections. This poll had been organised from scratch in less than a month. The ballot boxes were for example borrowed from Tunisia, and the finger-ink arrived from London only a day before the election. Misrata residents are electing 28 council members from a field of 242 candidates who will oversee the reconstruction of the city of 300,000 citizens.

Democratic breakthrough
For several people in Libya the local elections were the first opportunity to vote. The Misrata electoral commission president Mohammed Balrouin declared: "This is an historic event. We hope these elections will be an example [for the rest of Libya]." One female voter expressed her happiness at being able to exercise her democratic right to vote: “My feeling is that for the first time in our lives we feel we are human. We can choose what we want, it’s a joy for all Libyan people.” Most of the voters gathered outside polling booths agreed that it is the first time they have seen real democracy in their entire life. Many said that before, in the Gaddhafi era, they were being monitored and terrorised. February 20th had been declared a public holiday in Misrata, both for the election and to commemorate the date, exactly a year ago, when the city first began to rise up against the regime of Gaddhafi.

The battle of Misrata
The "city of martyrs" in Libya's revolution was besieged for several months by Gaddhafi's forces and saw some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict. Gaddhafi’s forces shelled the city for weeks, and fierce street battles left thousands dead, missing or injured. Mothers sent their sons to the front lines, while selling their gold jewellery to finance arms purchases. The inexperienced but tenacious Misrata rebels managed to push Gaddhafi’s forces out of the city in late April, a turning point that left the regime increasingly isolated in the capital and a few other cities in the western half of Libya. Together with insurgents from the western mountains along the border with Tunisia, the Misratan rebels converged from two sides on the regime stronghold of Tripoli and brought the capital down in a few days. A few months later in October, it were rebels from Misrata who captured Gaddhafi in his hometown and final stronghold of Sirte and killed him.

Misrata is, so far, the only large city in Libya to give its people a say in how their town is run. Almost everywhere else, local representatives have been appointed without consulting the voters. The coastal city of Benghazi, which was the rebel capital during the uprising, has also sacked its council and called for elections next month.

Sources: BBC, the Sun Daily, Tripoli Post, The Associated Press
Image Flickr by bbcworldservice