Political
On 14 October, Ali Zidan was elected the new prime minister of Libya, just one week after the previous incumbent, Mustafa Abu Shagur, was dismissed by the National Congress in a vote of no confidence. The Libya Herald reported that Zidan beat his rival Mohammed Al-Harari in a close-fought race, taking 93 votes to Al-Harari’s 85, with 179 members in attendance. A former diplomat, Zidan was an outspoken opponent to Muammar Qadhafi for several decades before playing a significant role helping to mobilise international support for last year’s pro-democracy revolution. Zidan was elected to Congress as an independent candidate in the August elections; he resigned from the post during the week, in order to run for the premiership. He previously stood unsuccessfully for election as speaker of Congress, losing out to Mohamed Magarief.
Zidan enjoyed the broad support of the National Forces Alliance, who also backed him in the speaker’s race, as well as a number of independents. Al-Harari, who also had strong independent support, is known to have been the favoured candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood. Zidan will now have two weeks to submit his Cabinet, and it remains to be decided whether Congress will choose to maintain the same system of ratification as previously, in which every name on the list had to be voted on individually.