Electoral Analysis: Full Election Results Released In Libya
(A Libyan polling station worker checks electoral material; Photo Credit: Getty)
Libya’s High National Elections Commission (HNEC) released the complete set of preliminary election results (Arabic) on Tuesday. As part of POMED’s ongoing Libyan election coverage, we have translated HNEC’s party-list results chart into English. The chart provides a breakdown of how many seats each party attained by electoral district.
Of the upcoming General National Congress’ (GNC) 200 seats, 120 were designated for individual candidates whereas the remaining 80 were competed over by party lists. Though it is unclear how the 120 successful individual candidates will align once in the GNC, the party-list results provide a more detailed look at how certain groups fared in the elections. It should be noted, the results will only be declared final following a fourteen-day appeal period.
As has been widely commented on in the media, former NTC prime minister Mahmoud Jibril’s National Forces Alliance (NFA) dominated the party-list portion of the elections. Jibril’s relatively liberal Alliance – a broad coalition of 58 political parties that has been running under the banner “Libya for everyone, by everyone” – earned 39 of the 80 seats. Perhaps more telling, the NFA came in first place in 16 of the 20 party list districts across the country, a fact that speaks to the party’s appeal even beyond the populous districts of Tripoli. The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Justice and Construction Party placed a distant second, receiving 17 seats. Of the other major parties expected to do well, the relatively conservative Islamist Homeland Party ultimately failed to garner a single seat, and the National Front Party took away just three.
Despite the NFA’s overwhelming victory in the party-list competition, it is uncertain whether it will have enough support to form a coalition. Mohamed Sawan, the president of the runner up Justice and Construction Party, has already refused to work with Mahmoud Jibril’s coalition. Sawan has reportedly been in contact with both smaller parties and independent candidates in an effort to build a non-NFA coalition.
Regardless of the governing coalition’s final makeup, the powers of the GNC have yet to be fully defined. As originally conceived, the body’s primary objective was to appoint the body that would write the new constitution. This basic mandate was made less certain, however, when days before the election the NTC issued a constitutional amendment stripping the GNC of this power. According to the amendment, the 60 individuals responsible for writing the new constitution are to be directly elected, 20 from each of the country’s three main regions. The NTC’s surprise move was viewed by most as an attempt to assuage an increasingly restive eastern region and prevent a minority of its residents from thwarting the election process – demonstrators in this region had been demanding a more equal distribution of the GNC’s seats in the run up to the vote. That said, the GNC will have the opportunity to amend any of the NTC’s prior decisions should it have the required two-thirds majority to do so. It is widely believed that the power to appoint the constitutional body will thus be restored by the GNC once in power.
