19 Jul 2012

Moderates top Libyan election results

5:51 am on 19 July 2012

Moderate candidates came out on top in Libya's recent general election.

The National Forces Alliance, led by ex-interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, has won 39 out of 80 seats reserved for political parties.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Construction Party won 17.

However, the BBC reports the allegiances of another 120 independent candidates are largely unknown.

It's the first significant victory for secular liberals of the Arab Spring.

More than 100 parties competed in the poll on 7 July, many of them formed only in recent months.

The election commission put turnout at 62% of registered voters.

The new assembly will choose the first elected government since Colonel Muammar Gaddafi came to power in 1969. He was ousted in August 2011 and killed two months later.