Mahmoud Jibril’s party set to win Libyan elections - report

According to the Libya Herald, Libya's former interim prime minister Mahmoud Jibril will be winning comfortably the Libyan elections.

Jibril, who leads the National Forces Alliance (NFA),  had led the country during the civil war chairing the executive board of the National Transitional Council.

The Libya Herald said that observation of the vote counters at the Hurriya (Freedom) voting station in Benghazi, revealed how the majority of votes were for Jibril's coalition.

A senior official at the HNEC in Tripoli also told the Libya Herald that the NFA was out in front.

"From what I'm hearing now, it does appear that Jibril is going to do the best," the official told the newspaper.

This is Libya's first free national elections in more than four decades, a ballot which took place amid violence by federalist protesters who disrupted the vote in several districts.

Turnout was 60%, the electoral commission said, citing preliminary figures.

"We are continuing to receive reports, but the number of voters has reached 1.6 million," said Nuri al-Abbar, the head of the commission.

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

The new assembly will appoint a new cabinet and a prime minister, but will not choose the committee that would draft the country's first constitution.

The key responsibility to appoint the constitutional committee was stripped away from the assembly by National Transitional Council decree on Thursday in a last-minute move to appease the eastern protesters who demand more autonomy for their region.