18 Jul 2012

UN / LIBYA

As official results were released today (18 July) of Libya’s first free elections in almost half a century, the UN envoy to the country said the conduct of the elections had “deeply impressed all observers” but that the new government would face big challenges. UNTV

Posted at: July 18, 2012 2:42 pm

Duration: 02:31

Available in: SD

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STORY: UN / LIBYA
TRT: 2.31
SOURCE: UNTV 
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS

DATELINE: 18 JULY 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – 2011, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

18 JULY 2012, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council meeting
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Martin, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to Libya: 
"Libyan men and women, young and old, amassed in queues at polling centres to cast their votes, and then displayed their inked fingers with the pride and emotion of people who had so long been denied democratic freedoms, many of whose families had suffered and sacrificed loved ones for the right they were at last able to exercise. Where violence threatened the poll, it was the determination and the courage of voters themselves which successfully resisted it."
5. Med shot, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Martin, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to Libya:
"There is no underestimating the challenges and the expectations which the new government will face. Foremost amongst those is security – the issue which all agree was uppermost in the minds of voters."
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ian Martin, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to Libya:
"When I first travelled to Benghazi last year to meet the National Transitional Council and discuss the possible UN assistance to Libya once the fighting ended, I could not have imagined how far Libya would have come by today. In their new mood of holding their leaders strictly to account, Libyans have sometimes been strongly critical of the NTC and of the interim government, and I have been frank today about some of the issues yet to be adequately addressed. But at this moment of peaceful, democratic transition to new authorities, Libya stands well in comparison to any post-conflict context."
9. Med shot, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ibrahim O. A. Dabbashi, Deputy Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations:
"The people of Libya would not have reached this point without the many sacrifices given, the many sons lost in getting rid of dictator Qadhafi, a man who treated Libyans as his personal slaves for over forty years, who killed anyone who dared speak against his regime or for democracy."
11. Wide shot, end of meeting

FILE – 7 JULY 2012, TRIPOLI, LIBYA

12. Wide shot, people in line at a polling station waiting to vote
13. Wide shot, women waiting to vote in a separate line at a polling station
14. Med shot, women voting inside a polling station

STORYLINE:

As official results were released today (18 July) of Libya's first free elections in almost half a century, the UN envoy to the country said the conduct of the elections had "deeply impressed all observers" but that the new government would face big challenges.

Briefing the Security Council, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Libya, Ian Martin recalled how Libyan men and women had "amassed in queues at polling centres to cast their votes, and then displayed their inked fingers with the pride and emotion of people who had so long been denied democratic freedoms, many of whose families had suffered and sacrificed loved ones for the right they were at last able to exercise".

With the Libyan people now on their way toward what the envoy called the first peaceful and democratic transfer of power, the country must now agree on the formation of a new government and on the process for drawing up a new constitution.

Libya's interim government is expected to remain in office until the new government is formed. Martin said there was "no underestimating the challenges and the expectations which the new government will face".

Foremost among these challenges is security, he stated, noting that Libyans want the rule of law to prevail, in a weapons-free environment, where police respond to crimes, and only state authorities arrest and detain suspects.

Martin said he "could not have imagined" when he first travelled to Libya last year how far it would have come by today, "at this moment of peaceful, democratic transition to new authorities".

Libyan ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi reminded delegates of the sacrifices made by his people to topple Muammar al-Qadhafi, who "treated Libyans as his personal slaves for over forty years, who killed anyone who dared speak against his regime or for democracy".

Dabbashi led a group of diplomats from the Libyan mission to the United Nations who publicly broke with Qadhafi in February 2011.

The results of the 7 July poll released today give the moderate National Forces Alliance (NFA) led by Mahmoud Jibril 39 seats out of 80 reserved for parties in Libya's 200-seat national assembly. The country's biggest Islamist group, the political wing of Libya's Muslim Brotherhood, won 17 seats.

Filed under LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA .