Reuters, Tripoli :
Libyans started voting for a new parliament on Wednesday, in an election that officials hope will ease the turmoil that has gripped the country since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi three years ago.
The vote is another step in Libya’s transition after decades of one-man rule, but it comes as the country slides towards chaos, after a renegade army general opened a campaign against Islamist militants in the east.
Participation is widely expected to be lower than it was in 2012 after the election commission tightened registration rules.
Around 1.5 million voters have registered, roughly half the 2.8 million registered in July 2012 for Libya’s first free election in more than 40 years. The country badly needs a functioning government and parliament.
It is trying to impose authority over heavily armed former rebels, militias and tribes that helped oust Gaddafi but who now defy state authority and carve out their own fiefdoms.
Libya is also struggling with a budget crisis. A wave of protests at oilfields and shipping ports by armed militias has reduced oil production, the country’s lifeline, to a trickle.
Tripoli’s partners in the West hope the vote will help Libya begin rebuilding a viable state.
