[h=3]By MARGARET COKER[/h]TRIPOLI—A coalition of liberal parties have made a strong showing against well-organized religious groups in Libya's first free election since Moammar Gadhafi seized power in 1969, according to unofficial results reported by party officials and election observers.
Official tallies aren't expected for several days, but authorities from rival groups including the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated party and the secular coalition headed by former rebel leader Mahmoud Jibril say they have noted high vote counts for Mr. Jibril's group, especially in Libya's major urban centers, where the vast majority of the nation's six million people live.
The novelty of elections in Libya—no political parties or free polls were permitted during Gadhafi's 42-years in power—and the complex election rules made it difficult to identify clear front-runners ahead of Saturday's vote.
Unlike Egypt and Tunisia, where Islamic parties like the Muslim Brotherhood dominated those countries first post-Arab Spring elections, Libya's vote was expected to curb the influence of Islamic groups.
Libya's new 200-seat National General Congress has 120 seats reserved for independent candidates, the vast majority of whom have no prior political experience, and 80 seats for parties, which have only organized themselves over the last several weeks.
That allocation of seats means that a likely result of the poll is a strong party bloc that would need to form a larger governing coalition with the patchwork of independent politicians who are largely focused on local issues, rather than religious ones, in order to choose a new prime minister and conduct business.
Libyans celebrated the chance to participate in their country's future for the first time in modern history.
"This is the day that we fix the past," said Maryem El-Barouni, a 23-year-old medical student, referring to the legacy of economic decay and dictatorship, who was among the first voters in the capital Saturday morning. "We've come through a very bad period. This is our chance to feel freedom."
On Saturday evening, people organized street parades and spontaneous late-night parties to commemorate the poll. On Sunday, a national holiday, families gathered at the beach and at home to swap pictures and anecdotes about the voting experience.
Voter turnout was about 65%, according to Nuri Al-Abar, the head of the Higher National Electoral Commission, while election observers praised the voting process as organized and smooth, despite the months of lawlessness and regional tensions that have come to symbolize the interim period after Gadhafi's ouster and death last fall.
However, isolated violence in eastern Libya on Saturday, including a shoot out at one polling station that killed a looter, underscored the security challenges and regional tensions that the new congress will have to tackle in its first days in power.
By Sunday afternoon, voters in the far-flung southern towns of Sidra and Kufra, located near the Chad border, were still casting ballots, due to continuing security concerns in those locales that kept residents from voting a day earlier.
At the same time, many of the nearly 1,500 polling stations around the country started posting their unofficial results, prompting party observers stationed at those stations to start making predictions.
Officials from both the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated party, Justice and Development, and the National Forces Coalition, Mr. Jibril's group, agreed that early results for the party races heavily favored Mr. Jibril's group, especially in districts located in Tripoli, the capital, and Benghazi, the largest city in the east.
It was still too early to call races in the independent candidate contests, election observers said. Mr. Abar, the election chief, cautioned against early predictions, telling reporters in the capital Tripoli that mistaken perceptions about electoral results could add to the nation's deep-seated tensions that the country has been battling for the last several months.
A senior member of Mr. Jibril's coalition expressed cautious optimism over his group's showing in the poll.
"There are no official results yet, but we feel very confident. We decided on a united front…we didn't want to leave the country to extremists," the coalition official said.
Mr. Jibril's coalition registered party candidates in about 45 of the nation's 72 voting districts, roughly equal to the numbers registered by Justice and Development.
The official credited the strong popular support to his group's strategy to unite candidates supporting secular government and pro-development agendas, as well as a deep-seated suspicion that Libya's new religious parties were receiving financing and aid from foreign countries such as Qatar, whose government is a historic supporter of Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
Official tallies aren't expected for several days, but authorities from rival groups including the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated party and the secular coalition headed by former rebel leader Mahmoud Jibril say they have noted high vote counts for Mr. Jibril's group, especially in Libya's major urban centers, where the vast majority of the nation's six million people live.
The novelty of elections in Libya—no political parties or free polls were permitted during Gadhafi's 42-years in power—and the complex election rules made it difficult to identify clear front-runners ahead of Saturday's vote.
Unlike Egypt and Tunisia, where Islamic parties like the Muslim Brotherhood dominated those countries first post-Arab Spring elections, Libya's vote was expected to curb the influence of Islamic groups.
Libya's new 200-seat National General Congress has 120 seats reserved for independent candidates, the vast majority of whom have no prior political experience, and 80 seats for parties, which have only organized themselves over the last several weeks.
That allocation of seats means that a likely result of the poll is a strong party bloc that would need to form a larger governing coalition with the patchwork of independent politicians who are largely focused on local issues, rather than religious ones, in order to choose a new prime minister and conduct business.
Libyans celebrated the chance to participate in their country's future for the first time in modern history.
"This is the day that we fix the past," said Maryem El-Barouni, a 23-year-old medical student, referring to the legacy of economic decay and dictatorship, who was among the first voters in the capital Saturday morning. "We've come through a very bad period. This is our chance to feel freedom."
On Saturday evening, people organized street parades and spontaneous late-night parties to commemorate the poll. On Sunday, a national holiday, families gathered at the beach and at home to swap pictures and anecdotes about the voting experience.
Voter turnout was about 65%, according to Nuri Al-Abar, the head of the Higher National Electoral Commission, while election observers praised the voting process as organized and smooth, despite the months of lawlessness and regional tensions that have come to symbolize the interim period after Gadhafi's ouster and death last fall.
However, isolated violence in eastern Libya on Saturday, including a shoot out at one polling station that killed a looter, underscored the security challenges and regional tensions that the new congress will have to tackle in its first days in power.
By Sunday afternoon, voters in the far-flung southern towns of Sidra and Kufra, located near the Chad border, were still casting ballots, due to continuing security concerns in those locales that kept residents from voting a day earlier.
At the same time, many of the nearly 1,500 polling stations around the country started posting their unofficial results, prompting party observers stationed at those stations to start making predictions.
Officials from both the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated party, Justice and Development, and the National Forces Coalition, Mr. Jibril's group, agreed that early results for the party races heavily favored Mr. Jibril's group, especially in districts located in Tripoli, the capital, and Benghazi, the largest city in the east.
It was still too early to call races in the independent candidate contests, election observers said. Mr. Abar, the election chief, cautioned against early predictions, telling reporters in the capital Tripoli that mistaken perceptions about electoral results could add to the nation's deep-seated tensions that the country has been battling for the last several months.
A senior member of Mr. Jibril's coalition expressed cautious optimism over his group's showing in the poll.
"There are no official results yet, but we feel very confident. We decided on a united front…we didn't want to leave the country to extremists," the coalition official said.
Mr. Jibril's coalition registered party candidates in about 45 of the nation's 72 voting districts, roughly equal to the numbers registered by Justice and Development.
The official credited the strong popular support to his group's strategy to unite candidates supporting secular government and pro-development agendas, as well as a deep-seated suspicion that Libya's new religious parties were receiving financing and aid from foreign countries such as Qatar, whose government is a historic supporter of Muslim Brotherhood leaders.