Liberals Lead Islamists in First Free Libyan Elections

Last October Al-Qaeda planted its flag on the Benghazi Courthouse. The terror group warned locals:
“Whomever speaks ill of this flag, we will cut out his tongue.”

From the video: According to one Benghazi resident, Islamists driving brand-new SUVs and waving the black al Qaeda flag drive the city’s streets at night.

But today Libyan liberals are leading the Islamists in the first round of democratic elections. The Islamist parties won elections this year in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco following the Arab Spring uprisings.
The AFP reported:

Liberals claimed an early lead on Sunday in vote counting across the country after Libya held its first free elections following Moamer Kadhafi’s overthrow, winning plaudits from the international community.

If the trend is confirmed, Libya unlike neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt whose strongmen were also toppled in last year’s Arab Spring, will buck the trend of electoral success for Islamist movements.

“Early reports show that the coalition is leading the polls in the majority of constituencies,” the secretary general of the National Forces Alliance, Faisal Krekshi, told AFP.

The alliance which groups more than 40 small parties is headed by Mahmud Jibril who played a prominent role as rebel prime minister during last year’s popular revolt that toppled dictator Kadhafi and ended his four-decade rule.

The leader of one of Libya’s main Islamist parties, also basing his assessment on their vote count observers, acknowledged the rival coalition had the edge in the country’s two largest cities.

“The National Forces Alliance achieved good results in some large cities except Misrata. They have a net lead in Tripoli and in Benghazi,” said Mohammed Sawan, who heads the Justice and Construction party.

1. 

   #1 July 8, 2012 at 7:43 am

   Mahdi Al-Dajjal commented:

   Not to worry. Once the islamists blow up a few election places and behead opposition candidates, they’ll win in a landslide!

2. 

   #3 July 8, 2012 at 7:57 am

   Joe Blow commented:

   Islamists, like the Democrats will never let the other side win. Any way they can, they will be declared the winners.

3. 

   #4 July 8, 2012 at 8:52 am

   bear commented:

   #’s 1 & 3,

   Spot on.

4. 

   #6 July 8, 2012 at 11:42 am

   Morgan commented:

   Elections are a formality in Muslim countries. Did they get $200 million from Obama like Egypt did, for ‘election expenses?’

5. 

   #7 July 8, 2012 at 11:53 am

   Lefty commented:

   Un-fracking believable! Liberals make life unbearable for conservative Christians and Jews in this country….then do the same thing to ‘hardline’ Muslims abroad.
   What’s the world coming to?

6. 

   #8 July 8, 2012 at 1:13 pm

   Valerie commented:

   #7 July 8, 2012 at 11:53 am
   Lefty commented:

   The United States of America is the Classical Liberal country. The people who call themselves “conservative” in this country are those trying to preserve America’s classical liberal values of “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”

   The people who campaigned under the “Hope and Change” slogan took office and then enacted a whole slew of policies resurrected from the dustbin of history without benefit of any cogent analysis of why and how those policies failed everywhere they have been tried, so far. They have wasted the nation’s treasure by using a corrupt kickback scheme to “invest in the future” when in fact all they’ve done is enrich their supporters without any benefit to the public as a whole. They have supported unscientific, innumerate, stupid environmental policy as a means of to an end, namely bankrupting the businesses of their political opponents, and also taking control of large sectors of the economy. They have aligned themselves with the most oppressive, religiously intolerant, bloody, anti-freedom networks (political Islam) ever to exist, the last of the great fascist movements of the last century (communism, socialism and Islamism).

   The people who campaigned for “hope and change” have run a classic electoral theft-by-lies followed by the enactment of uproariously unpopular policies that harm individuals and disrespect our own political process. They have engaged in gun-running against our neighbor.

   The people who campaigned for “hope and change” in this country are not liberal, and they are aligned with the people that liberals in other countries are fighting.

7. 

   #9 July 8, 2012 at 5:31 pm

   P. Aaron commented:

   The Islamists are probably just firing up the printing of those ‘lost’ ballots as we speak.