Ahmed Addarrat, a Libyan who has voted today, spoke to MEE about his thoughts on the election and what needs to happen for Libya moving forward. 

"These elections serve as more or less a reset button but their effectiveness depend on who is elected. But at the same time the politicians have to be put into the right atmosphere and right not the atmosphere is not that healthy.

“There needs to be a healthy atmosphere for them [politicians] to work in towards bridging the divides that exist. I’m one of those people who is on the more positive end of the totem pole, which is why I voted today.

“I’m always going to vote, I believe that if you don’t vote you don’t have the right to speak out against what’s going on. You got to do your part as a citizen.

“I think here in Libya people still don’t understand what it means to be a citizen, especially after 42 years of not really being one [under Gaddafi] and just being told what to do. As Libyan citizens we need to accept the responsibility of what is happening in our country and hold ourselves accountable before we hold the people in power accountable.

“A lot of people resented the GNC, and rightfully so as they didn’t perform well at all, but I always tell people we got to look at how we act in the street, how we treat each other and behave at home. We have to ask: is that how we want to treat each other? The GNC has been a mirror of what the Libyan society is.

“If you don’t like what they are doing [the GNC] then you got to change what you’re doing.

“A low turnout out this in vote will give more room for an argument that the parliament will lose legitimacy. People have election fatigue, some say there are elections after elections without any result, so people say: why the hell am I going to go vote if these guys don’t really do much for us?

“Although, I personally don’t think a low turnout will affect the legitimacy of the vote.”