Libya Set to Elect New Prime Minister

World Today

Egypt’s neighbor Libya, is bracing for the final round of elections for a new prime minister on Sunday. A 200 member General National Congress (GNC) is assigned to elect the premier. The country is run by an interim government led by Abdullah Al Thinni after the sacking of former Prime minister Ali Zeidan last March.

Libya Set to Elect New Prime Minister

Egypt's neighbor Libya, is bracing for the final round of elections for a new prime minister on Sunday. A 200 member General National Congress (GNC) is assigned to elect the premier. The country is run by an interim government led by Abdullah Al Thinni after the sacking of former Prime minister Ali Zeidan last March.

Elections were called after Interim Prime minister Abdullah Al Thinni had refused to continue in office citing threats on his life.The first round of voting last week included 9 candidates.

The two with the highest votes businessman Ahmed El Metig, a Harvard graduate.. and Omar Al Hassy, a lawyer and university professor will go head to head in a second round

The second round was postponed twice. In both cases the GNC building was attacked by armed militants during voting.. Several security guards were injured. Some members of the GNC accused supporters of Omar Al Hassy for the attacks. He denies it.

Election law requires the candidate garner at least 120 votes out of 200 . Analysts say it is hard to achieve such a consensus.

If the GNC failed to elect an outright winner, the interim government will be given more powers and asked to continue permanently.

Analysts say electing a new Prime Minister is crucial to the success of the transitional period. But more importantly is that whoever takes office will be judged on how he will deal with the ailing security situation.