Delayed Openings and Voting after Election Day
Despite a peaceful atmosphere in much of the country, cities in the east of Libya suffered a series of violent attacks against polling centers and election materials during the immediate elections period that had a significant impact on polling. While the HNEC and polling staff should be congratulated for their quick response to these incidents, and in particular for their commitment to ensuring that all voters in affected areas were able to participate in the elections, the future electoral management body should consider the introduction of measures to handle potential disruptions to the polling process and should develop a detailed emergency operational plan.

Polling stations in Ajdabiya, Benghazi, Brega, and Gemenes opened late on election day. Five polling centers in Sidra opened only on the following day, July 8, and three polling centers in Kufra and Ribiana opened only on July 10. The election law states that "polling shall last for one day, from eight o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock in the evening."[1] It does not specify that voting can take place only on election day; however, it states that voting may only take place between the specified hours.

Decisions to delay voting in some locations was made on an ad hoc basis late in the process. Measures to address potential disruptions to the polling process should have been established earlier and communicated clearly so that all stakeholders could prepare themselves. The absence of sufficient public information about the opening of polling stations, voting that continued into the night, and delayed voting in some locations may have interfered with voters' ability to participate in the elections.

In addition, for security reasons as many as 100 polling stations in Ajdabiya, Benghazi, and Sirte districts were consolidated so that polling for multiple stations was conducted within a single location, in some cases with a single ballot box serving multiple stations. This was done without appropriate legal and administrative measures, making reconciliation impossible at some polling stations and delaying the tally process.

Finally, on the afternoon of election day, a decision was made by electoral officials in Benghazi to allow registered voters from three polling centers to vote in any polling center in the district.[2] Legally, this decision is contrary to electoral regulations that state that voters are only allowed to vote in the center where they have registered, and that polling staff should not allow anyone whose name is not on the voters' list to vote.[3] The Center acknowledges the extenuating circumstances under which this action was taken.

While exceptional, these decisions could have been avoided if the HNEC had adopted an emergency operational plan in advance, rather than taking decisions on a case-by-case basis. In future elections, an emergency operational plan should be developed and widely disseminated to HNEC district offices and polling staff prior to election day.