20 February 2012
Last updated at 17:21 ET
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Voting for the future in Misrata
The polling stations were segregated. In one school women emerged from behind curtained-off booths to post their ballot papers. Hesitantly, they dipped their fingers into a pot of deep-blue ink.
Almost no-one had ever voted before.
When the Libyan community of Misrata high elections to its local council on Monday it was the first-class large-scale democratic poll in a Libyan community since the fall of Col Gaddafi.
The vote is experimental as a potential model for native elections due to be high this summer.
“God willing, Libya will become a boost county as a result of the people we choose today,” said Nadia, as she emerged from the polling station looking slightly awe-struck.
It didn’t matter that her vote would original count towards seats on a local council. After more than four decades of dictatorship, this was a momentous occasion.
“We’ve been waiting for this day such a long time,” she added.
“I can’t describe how merry I am. If it hadn’t been for the young men who sacrificed themselves we wouldn’t be here today.”
There are 219 candidates standing, all of them independents. They are competing for 28 seats.
Mohammed Berween says Misrata can create a democratic model for the ride of Libya
At the headquarters of the hastily-assembled electoral committee, there was an air of exultant exhaustion. This poll had been organised from scratch in less than a month.
The ballot boxes were borrowed from Tunisia – the finger-ink arrived from London original on Sunday.
“We need to start from scratch but we need to start quickly,” said Mohammed Berween, beaming and hugging friends as he wagged his ink-stained finger in the air.
The 58-year-old politics professor had just voted for the first-class time in his life. Having recently returned from 30 years in exile in Texas, he is now trying to instruct his fellow Libyans in the art of democracy.
“We hold to hold the belief that we can do it. And I think if we can [then] we can hold a stable, democratic county within a few years.”
Misrata is, so far, the original lofty community in Libya to present its people a say in how their town is run. Almost everywhere else, local representatives hold been appointed without consulting the voters.
But then, Misrata is fast gaining a reputation as a community that does things its own way.
“We [want to] create this model,” Mr Berween said.
“We call it the Misrata model. It will be given to the ride of the county as a gift, [as proof] that we can do it. It is the Obama slogan: ‘Yes we can’.”
Shrapnel damage
Misrata’s identity was forged in battle. The community paid a huge price for its defiance of Col Gaddafi.
Evidence of the punishment inflicted by the former dictator is everywhere – in the buildings, pockmarked with shrapnel, and in the scarred lives of its inhabitants. Everyone has lost friends, many hold lost relatives too. Some are missing limbs.
For months last year Misrata high out against Col Gaddafi’s forces, confronted by the enemy on one side, the sea on the other. That experience has left people here with a fierce set of independence.
Continue reading the main story
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If they do something good for the country, then fine. But otherwise we’ll remove them just as we removed Gaddafi”
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Ali Abdurahman
Misrata fighter
On Tripoli Street, the important thoroughfare that was once the front line, young men armed with guns and wearing a variety of combat fatigues search cars as they filter through a checkpoint.
Whatever happens in this election, these are the people who thoroughly call the shots in Misrata – groups of former rebel fighters whose authority stems not from any democratic mandate, but from their fearsome reputation.
Sitting in a Jeep that had once belonged to Col Gaddafi’s forces, Ali Abdurahman said he had cast his vote for education. He had left school at 16, he said, and was thinking about going back into learning.
When it came to the native poll, he said he didn’t care whether the winners came from Misrata, Tripoli or Benghazi. He just wanted them to do a good job.
But he had a warning for Libya’s new politicians.
“We’ll present them a bit of time, because we are starting from zero. If they do something good for the country, then fine. But otherwise we’ll remove them just as we removed Gaddafi. It will be another revolution.”
This community already runs its own affairs independent of Tripoli. The interim government is widely experimental as ineffectual; the National Transitional Council as unaccountable.
People in Misrata feel they can set an exhibit for the ride of Libya. Follow us if you want to, they say, but we are not waiting around.
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-17107048
