TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan war-time prime minister Mahmoud Jibril’s National Forces Alliance (NFA) was heading for a landslide victory in the national assembly election in the eastern city of Benghazi and surrounding towns, partial results showed on Wednesday.
Benghazi, the cradle of last year’s uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, is also a hub for the political wing of Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood and was a hotspot of protests against Saturday’s election by easterners seeking more autonomy from Tripoli.
But Jibril’s NFA won 95,733 votes in the constituency against just 16,143 for the Brotherhood’s party Justice and Construction, tallies announced by the election commission showed, consolidating wins the NFA has seen in the west, south and east of the country.
(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Hadeel Al-Shalchi; writing by Mark John; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
