Security for tomorrow’s elections is set to be high, with the Ministry of Interior announcing that 40,000 security personnel have been designated roles to help ensure the smooth running of the elections.

The Amazigh Supreme Council today declared in Tripoli its total rejection of the Constitutional Committee to be elected tomorrow and any constitution it devises. It announced that it plans instead to hold its own elections for a parliament for the Amazigh. No date was given.

Ali Shaikhi, Osama Siala and Al-Aref Al-Khouja at HNEC headquarters (Photo: Ahmed Elumami)

Despite security challenges, elections are to go ahead in the Cyrenaica towns of Kufra and Derna where inhabitants have been plagued by some of the worst violence in the country since the revolution.

Voter Mohamad Al-Jabani and IOM staff member Raghad Kebhaj (Photo: Shahrazad Kablan)

Military personnel can vote in Thursday’s elections for the 60-member Constitutional Committee, so long as they have registered, the Higher National Elections Commision (HNEC) announced yesterday.

A Tebu boycott of Thurday’s elections for the 60-member Constitutional Committee has been declared by the National Tebu Assembly (NTA).

As Libyans prepare to vote to establish a committee to draft the country’s first permanent constitution since Muammer Qaddafi came to power in 1969, one cannot help but reflect on the changed circumstances in the country.

The first ever election of mayors in Libya took place yesterday, in Beida and Shahat. Ali Hussain Mohamed Abubakr was elected mayor of Beida and Idris Abdulmajeed Abdullah Belhussain mayor of Shahat by the respective new municipal councils.

While the registration process for elections and an apparent political commitment to ‘dialogue’ represent tentative progress, there are still substantial obstacles to be overcome before the committee is formed, let alone the constitution drafted.