Libyans vote in former rebel capital

MISURATA, Libya, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Libyans in the former rebel capital Misurata cast votes in what residents said would be a model for the rest of the country.

Voters in Misurata cast ballots in the first election in roughly 40 years. The former rebel capital had to borrow ballot boxes from neighboring Tunisia and the ink used to identify voters arrived from London last weekend, the BBC reports.

Some people in the city said they'd never voted before.

Mohammed Berween, a political science professor who spent 30 years in exile in the United States, said the vote is significant for post-war Libya.

"We need to start from scratch but we need to start quickly," he was quoted as saying.

Libyans on Friday marked the first anniversary of the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi. Pro-Gadhafi forces used military force against the opposition, leading to a NATO-led intervention that ended with Gadhafi's death in October.

The country has enacted laws that pave the way toward eventual elections. The vote in Misurata is the first in what the BBC said was a model for other elections.