Libya’s first election after more than four decades of dictatorship kicks off on Saturday with voters queued up at polling stations across the country.

Libya’s first election after more than four decades of dictatorship kicks off on Saturday with voters queued up at polling stations across the country.

Polls opened at 8am local time on Saturday and will close at 8pm (1800 GMT) as the interim government, represented by the National Transitional Council (NTC), declared election day and Sunday national public holidays for voters to exercise their civic duty.

The 2.8 million registered voters will elect a 200-seat General National Conference (GNC) that will replace the unelected interim government that has ruled the country after the revolution against Libya’s ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Public service commercials on how the voting process works have been running on TV to support voters ahead of the elections. A large majority of Libyans will be going to the polls in the first time in their lives.

In Tripoli, voting centers witnessed queues of people eager to cast their ballots.
"Words cannot capture my joy, this is a historic day," said Fawziya Omran, 40, one of the first women waiting to vote at the Ali Abdullah Warith school in the heart of the capital.

"I've made my choice. I hope it is the right choice and that the candidate will not disappoint us," she told AFP.

The 3,700 candidates - 2,500 of whom are independent, the rest belongs to political parties - had until Thursday evening to reach out to voters, as the High National Election Committee (HNEC) declared Friday a "cool-off day" ahead of the vote.

FEARS OF VIOLENCE
On Friday, a helicopter carrying election material from Libya's eastern city of Benghazi was shot at in mid-flight, fatally wounding a member of the HNEC logistics team onboard.

"The helicopter was on its way from our warehouse in Benghazi to Tukara when it was hit by small arms fire. One young member of the logistics team was hit and the helicopter landed at Benina airport where he was taken to hospital," Doha-based channel, al-Jazeera quoted Loui El Magari of the HNEC as saying.

"He died there with many members of logistics team present. The team is back to work now. [...] Nothing can stop us," El Magari said.

The incident was only the latest in a string of violent eruptions in the run-up to Saturday’s highly anticipated vote.