Low turn-out forces eight-day extension of Amazigh voter listing

By Libya Herald reporters.

Tripoli,  16 August 2015:

A low response has . . .[restrict]forced an eight-day extension of voter registration for the first-ever elections to the Amazigh Supreme Council scheduled for the end of this month. The process of registering those eligible to help choose the new 26-member body was due to have closed today.

However, as reported in the Libya Herald on Friday,  electoral officials had encountered a markedly low turnout.  The expected pick-up in registrations by today has clearly not been sufficient to give the ballot the democratic validity for which the current, unelected Supreme Council has been hoping.

It has not been possible to obtain reliable numbers for people who have gone to special bureaux to register for the 30 August vote.  On Friday officials were blaming poor publicity for the whole election. There was also clearly indifference among some potential voters, who said they considered the exercise meaningless.

The  commission in charge of the election said today that the new deadline for voters to register is now Monday week. [/restrict]