Pro-Islamist elected Libya assembly chief
By AFP | AFP –
Mohamed al-Megaryef, a staunch opponent of Moamer Kadhafi’s overthrown regime who is seen as being pro-Islamist, was elected president of Libya’s new national assembly.
Megaryef, who had led the Libyan National Salvation Front, which grouped exiled opponents of Kadhafi, won with 113 votes in the General National Congress (GNC) against liberal independent Ali Zidane, who got 85.
Libya’s National Transitional Council on Wednesday handed power to the new assembly, elected July 7, in a symbolic move marking a peaceful transition after the overthrow of Kadhafi’s 40-year dictatorship in last year’s uprising.
Megaryef, born in 1940 in the eastern city of Benghazi, was elected to the GNC under the flag of his grouping, renamed the National Front Party. The poll for leadership of the new congress was broadcast live on Libyan television.
The new GNC president, an economist with a British doctorate in finance, had held leading posts under the Kadhafi
Category: World
