9 Jul 2012

LIBYA / ELECTION

Vote-counting continued Monday (9 July) in Libya, after the country’s first free elections in nearly half a century. UNDP

Posted at: July 9, 2012 5:48 pm

Duration: 00:44

Available in: SD

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STORY: LIBYA / ELECTION
TRT: 0:44
SOURCE: UNDP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 7 JULY 2012, TRIPOLI, LIBYA

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot, people in line at a polling station waiting to vote
2. Wide shot, women waiting to vote in a separate line at a polling station
3. Med shot, women voting inside a polling station
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Voter in Tripoli:
"Today we are celebrating as if it was a wedding day. For the first time in the last 60 years we have not seen a day like this. Today everyone is happy and everyone is hopeful about the future. This, god willing, is the beginning of Libya."
5. Med shot, election poster

STORYLINE:

Vote-counting continued Monday (9 July) in Libya, after the country's first free elections in nearly half a century.

The top United Nations envoy in Libya, Ian Martin today said the weekend poll was an "extraordinary achievement" and praised electoral authorities for organizing them efficiently, while also highlighting challenges an incoming government will face, foremost among them building security institutions.

Approximately 2.8 million people of an estimated 3.5 million potential voters registered to vote in the General National Congress elections. Some 1.3 million of registered voters were women.

In a traditionally male dominated society, 634 women candidates took up the challenge to compete in the elections. For most of the women who ran in these elections, this was an unprecedented experience. They had never participated in elections for any office, let alone a national legislative assembly.

About 180 women candidates, from all across Libya, took from training in electoral campaign management and requisite media skills offered by UNDP in collaboration with national authorities, local non-governmental organizations and other international organizations.

UNDP also supported the procurement of 8,900 polling kits, 25,000 voting booths, 15,000 bottles of indelible ink, 15,000 ballot boxes, and over eight million ballots for contests in both proportional and majority rule representation.