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The future of Libya’s new government is as hard to predict as the people selected to lead it, with established heavyweight candidates surprisingly losing out in Friday’s election to political novices.
Heading the new unity government is a three-strong presidency, led by Mohamed Menfi, a former ambassador to Greece. A cabinet will now be formed by new prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, a businessman from Misurata.
Neither man has until now been a key player in Libya’s often chaotic political firmament. Both men are now charged with stabilising a fractured country and supervising elections due in December.
The chairman of the three-member Transitional Presidential Council of Libya, Mohamed Menfi, was elected during the UN-sponsored intergovernmental dialogue.
The former diplomat was for years his country’s ambassador to Greece, but was deported in December 2019 after the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood Government of National Accords signed an illegal memorandum with Turkey to steal Greek maritime space.
Libyan Interim President Mohamed Menfi (John Liakos/InTime News via AP)
A congratulatory message for the election of a new transitional government in Libya, which will lead the country to elections by December, was made by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Mitsotakis stressed that the election of the government, which took place in Geneva, is “an important step towards peace.”
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Libyan delegates in Geneva chose Mohamed Menfi to head the Presidency Council of a new interim government and Abdul Hamid Dbeibah as its prime minister.
Musa Al Koni and Abdullah Al Lafi were also voted on to the three-man Presidency Council, in what was a surprising result that saw some of Libya’s most prominent politicians fall by the wayside.
The UN-backed vote to choose a Libyan interim government had gone to a run-off on Friday at the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, after none of the four candidate lists won enough support to secure outright victory. Abdul Hamid Dbeibah has been chosen as prime minister of Libya s new interim government. AFP