TRIPOLI — Explosions rocked five polling stations in eastern Libya on Thursday as voters elected a body to draft a new constitution, another step in the OPEC producer's rocky transition since Muammar Gaddafi fell in 2011. Polling stations opened across most of Libya, although they stayed closed in Derna after suspected Islamists forced one voting center to shut by firing shots into the air and shouting “voting is haram (forbidden),” an election official said. In Benghazi, gunmen threw a bag full of explosives into a polling station but the devices did not go off, a security source said. Early voting appeared sluggish in the capital, Tripoli, and the main eastern city of Benghazi, where soldiers guarded polling stations. Helicopters circled over Tripoli. “God willing this is the starting point for democracy and freedom, which is what we came for,” Hatem Al-Majri said as he voted in Benghazi. — Reuters
