Wartime rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril took an early lead in Libya's national
assembly election according to partial tallies released on Monday. Saturday's poll
was the first free national vote in six decades.
Ian Martin, head of the UN
Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), called the elections "an extraordinary achievement"
and a "critical first step" in the transition towards democracy.
"The mood
in Libya is extremely positive with people taking enormous pride in having voted after
nearly half a century, and in how well they organized this vote for themselves, he
said. “It mustn't blind any of us to the enormous challenges that still lie ahead
but it's a critical first step in Libya's democratic transition which has gone better
than I think almost anybody in the international community or the international media
expected.”