Africa

Home page

Africa

Liberal alliance wins Libyan polls, independent seats unclear

18 July 2012 03:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A liberal political alliance was in the lead in the first national elections in Libya since Moamer Gaddafi’s ouster, final results showed late Tuesday, APA reports.

The National Forces Alliance won 39 seats in the assembly, nearly half of the 80 seats allocated for political parties, according to results announced by the election commission. The alliance includes several parties and independent politicians and is led by Mahmoud Jibril, who served as head of the interim government last year.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction Party was in second place with 17 seats. The National Front Party came third with three seats. Around 120 seats were allocated to independent candidates. It remains unclear who they are going to ally with inside the assembly.

The results are seen as a setback to Islamists in North Africa, who won recent elections in neighbouring countries, Egypt and Tunisia. As Jibril’s alliance is seen broadly as a liberal coalition, it has repeatedly said it supports Islamic Shariah to be the basis of laws in Libya.

The commission said that 62 per cent of registered voters had turned out on July 7 to elect the 200-member National Congress, which will pick a cabinet and maintain legislative powers for about a year.

Candidates and parties will have two weeks to file appeals against the results.