Libyans celebrate voting in free election

Libyans, relieved that their first free national election in 60 years had survived violence and protests, celebrated the chance to draw a line under Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship and forge a brighter future for their country.

While two deaths were reported as anti-election protesters sought to disrupt Saturday’s poll which they reject as a sham, the interim Libyan government and Western backers of last year’s uprising hailed it as an early triumph for democracy.

No clear outcome is expected until today and questions remain on how the new 200-head national assembly will function, the importance of Islamic groups within it, and how growing demands for more autonomy in the east are to be addressed.

But the initial mood was one of jubilation as revellers lit the night sky over the capital Tripoli with fireworks while in the eastern city of Benghazi people celebrated by firing rocket-propelled grenades in the direction of the sea.

The election commission said 1.6m of some 2.8m registered voters had cast their ballots. “The first winner is the Libyan people,” commission chairman Nuri al-Abbar said on Saturday night, when repeatedly pressed for details of who had won.

US President Barack Obama made clear he saw the vote as a vindication. “The United States is proud of the role that we played in supporting the Libyan revolution and protecting the Libyan people, and we look forward to working closely with the new Libya,” he said.

While authorities boosted security to deal with threatened attacks by the ex-rebel militias which still wield power, it was ordinary Libyans armed with everything from clubs to automatic weapons who in many cases stood guard at polling stations.

“This was crisis management more than an election process, but they managed the crisis very well,” said International Crisis Group’s Claudia Gazzini of pre-vote attacks on election facilities that claimed at least one life.

But while the election itself went more smoothly than many had expected, the road ahead could still be rocky.