EU election monitors arrrive in Libya

The team of experts, headed by Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a member of the EU parliament, is to “undertake a comprehensive assessment of the upcoming electoral process, a process full of challenges after so many decades of authoritarian regime,” a statement by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton read.

The EU was invited to send monitors by the High National Election Commission (HNEC). The team’s arrival had been expected earlier following an HNEC-EU agreement last week but there were delays over security ssues.

The team will be deployed throughout Libya and is to remain until the whole electoral process is finished.

The forthcoming elections represent a crucial step in the ongoing transition. The EU will continue to support the Libyan people in this process and in realising the objective to establish a new Libya which is based on respect for democratic values, on stability and prosperity for all.”

Officially, the HNEC along with the NTC and the government are still sticking to the line that the elections will take place on 19 June.  But it is widely known that they are going to delayed, possibly by up to three weeks.  The list of approved candidates which originally was to have been announced well over a week ago and then rescheduled for last Tuesday still has not been made public. Once it is announced, there is supposed to be a five-day period during which those who have been disqualified from standing can appeal reports the Libyan Herald.

That means, if the list were announced today, that it would not be officially finalized until next Thursday, 14 June which is just five days before the election.

That is not enough time to print the ballot papers and distribute them, let alone give time to candidates for their campaigns and voters to know who those candidates and the parties on offer are and make an informed choice.

There have been suggestions that the election date of 19 June may be put back to the end of the month .

Security  is the main  issue the most recent incidents were a demonstration by 300 armed men in the centre of  Benghazi calling for Sharia and  an attack on the American Consulate with a home made bomb.

The NTC has been unable to control rival militia's or to disarm them and there have been calls for a federalism from the East of Libya, Cyrenaica and the Fezzan and Benghazi,  the seat of the revolt against Gaddafi, is also the centre  for the call for federalism and boycotting the vote. Libya has no democratic traditions and the green book and the people's committees of Gadaffi's era are not an adequate preparation for the democratic process.

Reports on Saturday indicated that officials had announced that the elections would be postponed perhaps to 10 July or later in August after Ramadan. This is to allow appeals from candidates in the election.

It was also announce that an ICC official, an, Australian lawyer Melinda Taylor had been arrested for trying to pass papers for Seif ul Islam  regarding his defence and was being held under house arrest by the Zintan Brigade.She was part of a four man ICC delegation. The ICC has called for her release, according to AFP..