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Libya's national congress elects new premier

Arab World Materials 13 September 2012 03:05 (UTC +04:00)
The National Congress of Libya on Wednesday elected a new premier who will lead the nation for an 18-month transitional period and will deal with security and economic issues, dpa reported.
Libya's national congress elects new premier

The National Congress of Libya on Wednesday elected a new premier who will lead the nation for an 18-month transitional period and will deal with security and economic issues, dpa reported.

In a second-round vote in the 200-member Congress Mustapha Abu Shagour, the current deputy prime minister, was elected to replace Premier Abdel Rahim al-Keeb.

Abu Shagour, from Libya's National Front Party, narrowly beat liberal Mahmoud Jibril by winnig 96 votes out of 200, Arab media reported.

In the first round of vote, none of the eight candidates who were running for the post secured the necessary votes to win.

Jibril, who led a transitional council during last year's revolution and now heads the liberal National Forces Alliance, received 86 votes in the first round. He was followed by Abu Shagour, with 55 votes and Islamist Electricity Awadh al Barassi with 41 votes.

The election of the new premier came a day after a deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi by insurgents who were angered by an anti-Islam film. The US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans were killed.

The eight candidates handed their political and economic programmes to the GNC on Monday and Tuesday. Their policies focused primarily on how to impose security in the country and the reintegration of former rebels who fought against the regime of leader Moamer Gaddafi within the government institutions.

On the economic level, the candidates focused on how to raise the income of Libyans and provide housing with affordable prices.

The main challenges which will face the new premier will be how to deal with the deteriorating security problems across the country and to reconstruct the main infrastructures in country, which were damaged in last year's fighting that ousted Gaddafi.

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