TRIPOLI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Libya's Higher Commission of Elections announced on Friday that the registration of voters at home has been closed, with more than 2.4 million registered voters.
The commission said in a press release that the voter register was closed, after registering 2.432 million voters. It confirmed that registration for voters abroad will continue until the end of February.
Abdul-Hakim Belkheir, vice president of the commission, confirmed that the number of registrants exceeded 50 percent of eligible voters in the country.
"The number of eligible voters in Libya is 4.4 million, and we have exceeded half the target number with more than 2.4 million voters," Belkheir told Xinhua.
Belkheir pointed to the importance of registration of more than half of eligible voters, "as it gives the voting outputs credibility and results that represent a large segment of the Libyan people."
The commission opened the voter registration inside Libya in December 6 for two months, but extended the registration for an additional week to enable more voters to register.
Last November, UN Envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame announced that the UN Mission in Libya was seeking to ensure that the elections will be held before the end of September 2018.
The elections are part of an action plan proposed by Salame in September to end the Libyan political crisis.
