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Fiji Time: 5:58 PM on Thursday 23 May

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Supporters raid election office

Afp
Tuesday, July 03, 2012

BENGHAZI, Libya - Supporters of a federal system in Libya have ransacked offices of the electoral commission in the eastern city of Benghazi in protest at next's week nationwide vote.

"A group of people entered the commission's office, ransacked the place and destroyed whatever was inside the building," said Jamal Boukrin, the commission's chief for Benghazi.

An AFP photographer said the assailants, shouting slogans calling for a "fair distribution of seats" in the General National Congress, did not attack commission employees but destroyed everything in their path in Sunday's incident.

A leader of the movement, Abdeljawad al-Badin, told AFP the violence was in protest at their demands for eastern and western Libya to be allocated an equal number of seats being ignored by the authorities.

Leaders of the autonomy movement for eastern Libya have called for a boycott of the July 7 vote.