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July 7th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
They showed the clerks their polling cards, had their signatures checked
against their original registrations, and were handed their precious,
foot-long square of blue paper. They stood looking at it, turning it over in
their hands, before being gently guided by officials to a voting booth.
It is a fair bet that no British voter ever goes to vote carrying the national
flag, complete with flagpole. They do here. At this polling station, in the
Tripoli satellite town of Janzour, many had dressed up in their best clothes
for the day.
“It is like a wedding for the whole country,” said Muna Munir, in a
jewelled headscarf and sandals. “We were always longing to be like
other countries, free countries. Well, now we are.”
It’s not quite that simple, of course. Down the road from these happy scenes
was a much stiffer test of Libyan democracy.
The old naval academy in Janzour has become a refugee camp for Libya’s
ethnically cleansed: the residents of what used to be a town called
Tawargha, accused, often falsely, of “collaboration” with the
Gaddafi regime during the revolution, now driven out, their houses and
streets destroyed.
The Tawargans live here in what one of them, Ahmed Mohammed, calls “complete
misery,” fourteen to a room, men and women mixed together, subject to
regular reprisal raids by the militias who are in many respects the real
government of Libya.
In February, gunmen invaded the compound, killing seven people. Another
refugee, Othman Omar, hasn’t dared leave the camp for ten months.
The interim government alternates between shrugging its shoulders and wringing
its hands.
Yet there is a polling station here. And what’s more, it is busy. Though the
mood is far from the celebrations elsewhere in Janzour, and though they have
every reason to fear and distrust the “new Libya,” the Tawarghans
are giving this election a go.
“Despite the situation we’re in, we still want to take part,” says
Mr Mohammed. “This is part of our participation in the revolution. We
just hope the elections will give Libya a government strong enough to do
something about our plight.”
It’s an excellent sign – one replicated in other parts of Libya where there
were fears the elections would flop. In Benghazi, a raid on a polling
station and the burning of ballot papers failed to prevent a generally high
turnout.
And the Tawarghans’ wish – a stable government which can keep them safe – is
something that many other voters, too, told us they hoped the elections will
deliver.
That, however, will be the stiffest test of all.
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