Friday, July 6, 2012

Residents of Benghazi to Boycott Elections


Benghazi is a city which seems to be taken by pre-election fever, with 358 candidates competing for the 26 seats reserved for it in the General National Congress. Their seats, however, are four less than those for Tripoli, which is enough to deepen old suspicions between Barqa, or eastern Libya, and the west of the country. Most of the people in the east agree that a central government based in Tripoli, hundreds of kilometers away from Benghazi, cannot be trusted. Some have already made their choice, by casting their ballots in a mock vote calling for the boycott of the elections. Others have used alternative means, such as attacking the building of the electorial commission. Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid reports from Benghazi.

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