The Libyan election commission says turnout for a day-long vote for a 60-member panel tasked to draft the country's first constitution in four decades has reached 45 percent.

The commission said in a statement Friday that voting a day earlier in nearly 1,500 polling centers was marred by incidents of violence that interrupted some of the polling. It says the number of voters reached nearly half a million out of a registered 1.1 million.

Several polling stations in the eastern city of Darnah, a stronghold of Islamic militias, came under attack and one man was killed, the statement said.

Intimidation in southern cities also turned many voters away.

The vote is crucial for Libya's transition to democracy after a political stalemate and violence since the ouster of Muammar Qaddafi.