TRIPOLI, July 7: Eager voters cast their ballots on Saturday in Libya’s first free national elections in decades after the ouster of Muammar Qadhafi, despite protesters disrupting some polling in the restive east.

In Tripoli, voting began with queues of people keen to elect the General National Congress, which will be at the helm of the country for a transition period.

“Words cannot capture my joy, this is a historic day,” said Fawziya Omran, 40, voting in a school in the heart of Tripoli.

Some voters in the capital sported black, red and green flags – the colours of the revolution that toppled Col Qadhafi last year – as mosques played loud chants of `Allahu Akbar’.

Joy was also palpable in the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the revolt.

“I feel like my life has been wasted so far, but now my children will have a better life,” said Hueida Abdul Sheikh, a 47-year-old mother of three.

Protesters demanding greater representation in the 200-member congress forced the closure of many polling stations elsewhere in the region, however.

Nuri al Abbar, chairman of the electoral commission, said acts of sabotage, mostly in the east, prevented 101 polling stations from opening.

“Ninety-four per cent of polling stations opened,” he told reporters in Tripoli, with voting under way in 1,453 out of 1,554 centres.

“Some of the polling stations were not opened. Because of security reasons, logistical materials haven’t reached them,” he said.

The commission said it was sending fresh materials to the affected centres.

Protesters unhappy over the east’s share of seats in the new assembly targeted polling centres and forced oil facilities to shut down ahead of the election.

And on the eve of the landmark vote an election worker was killed when a helicopter carrying election materials was targeted.

UN envoy to Libya Ian Martin on Saturday condemned the protesters’ “resort to violence,” but said the disruptions were unlikely to “spoil the election.” One voter in Benghazi, housewife Hadija Ibrahim al Majrab, 35, condemned anti-vote protesters.

“They have their views and they are free to express them, but this is not the way as what we want in the new Libya is law and order,” she said in the city’s upmarket Al Fuwayid district.

Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil was jubilant as he voted in his hometown of Al Bayda in the east.

“This happy day sets the foundations of a new Libya,” he said.

US Senator John McCain, an early backer of anti-Qadhafi rebels and their political leaders, hailed Libya’s “first step towards democracy” on a visit to Tripoli.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, who heads a team of 21 European Union observers, said the vote marked a major milestone after 42 years of dictatorship.

“We believe that to have this election in Libya less than one year after the fall of Tripoli is an important achievement,” Lambsdorff said.

“We only hope that the situation remains peaceful across the country. The majority of Libyans want to vote. Eighty per cent want to vote.”

The make-up of the congress has been a matter of heated debate, with factions such as the federalist movement calling for more seats.

The outgoing National Transitional Council (NTC) says seats were distributed according to demographics, with 100 going to the west, 60 to the east and 40 to the south.

But factions in the east, which was marginalised under Col Qadhafi, want an equal split and threatened to sabotage the vote if their demand was not met..—AFP