The preliminary results, characterized by independent monitors and party representatives who witnessed the vote count for a new national assembly, may reflect the relative novelty of political debate here as well as the reputation and tribal connections of the coalitions founder, Mahmoud Jibril. He is a member of Libyas most populous tribe, the Warfalla, as well as the former interim prime minister who helped lead the de facto rebel government in Benghazi. But Mr. Jibril and his coalition also stood out from other opponents of Islamists around the region because they did not hurl accusations of extremism against those who called for Islamic law. Like the Islamists and almost every other major faction here, Mr. Jibrils coalition pledged to make Islamic law a main source of legislation, though not the only one.
Ideological lines remained fuzzy, and many voters acknowledged plans to let tribal or family ties guide their vote. But the Islamists sought to portray Mr. Jibrils coalition as liberal or secular and some who stood with him acknowledged privately that for them those terms were perfectly apt. But Mr. Jibril himself echoed a frequent refrain of Libyan voters who were unsure what to make of re-emergent groups like the Muslim Brotherhood: Do they think they are more Muslim than we are? A former professor of political science who earned his doctoral degree and then taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Mr. Jibril said in a recent interview on Libyan television that his neighbors in either the United States or Libya would describe him as someone who goes to the mosque for Friday prayers, and we see that he prays.
The Libyan people dont need either liberalism or secularism or pretenses in the name of Islam, because Islam, this great religion, cannot be used for political purposes, he said. Islam is much bigger than that. The apparent success of his coalition inn outpolling the Muslim Brotherhoods bloc makes Mr. Jibril perhaps the most important voice in the next stage of Libyas political transition after the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. That phase is expected to include the drafting of a new constitution. Although his previous interim role barred him from personally seeking office in the planned national congress, his name appeared larger than that of his party or its candidates on campaign posters. His victory would complete a comeback for a leader who was pushed from office under pressure from rebels after the capture and killing of Colonel Qaddafi. They said Mr. Jibril had focused too much on courting Western support and had neglected domestic needs in rebel-controlled territory.
Several estimates indicate that in the portion of the planned national assembly that will be decided by the contest among parties, Mr. Jibrils coalition, the National Forces Alliance, had won as much as 80 percent of the vote in the western region around Tripoli and more than 60 percent around Benghazi in the east. Mr. Jibrils Warfalla tribe, which accounts for roughly one million of Libyas six million people, is heavily represented in both regions. The party that appeared to be running second, the bloc established by the Muslim Brotherhood, appeared to received only about 20 percent of the vote or less in both the Tripoli and Benghazi regions, the parties and election monitors said, indicating a trend that is likely to carry over into the competition between individual candidates. Another loosely Islamic party, one founded by Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a former leader of an armed insurgency here who became the head of Tripolis military council, also fell short in the voting. Though it had been expected to be a major competitor, it appeared to attract even less support than the Brotherhoods bloc.
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