Libyan economist to head assembly

Libya’s national assembly picked former opposition leader Mohammed Magarief as its president as the North African country’s newly elected congress began its rule. Megarief, 72, a founding member of the Libyan National Salvation Front, which grouped exiled opponents of Muammar Qadhafi, defeated liberal independent Ali Zidane in a run-off by 113 votes to 85 in the 200-member General National Congress. The assembly also voted for Giuma Attaiga, a lawyer from the port city of Misrata, as a deputy to Magarief. Magarief is effectively acting head of state, but the true extent of his powers is yet to be determined. The assembly is tasked with choosing an interim government that will steer the country until  fresh elections can be held under a new constitution to be drafted by a panel of 60 members. Magarief hails from Libya’s second biggest city, Benghazi, the cradle of last year’s revolt. Those roots are likely to placate fears in the east that the region would be marginalised by a centralised authority in the capital Tripoli. An economist with a doctorate from Britain and former Libyan ambassador to India who had lived in exile since the 1980s, Magarief survived assassination attempts in Rome in 1981, in Casablanca in 1984 and in Madrid in 1985, his daughter Asma said. The Qadhafi regime also took reprisals against family members who stayed in Libya, jailing several of his brothers. “I am very, very happy. This is a big responsibility,” he told Reuters after the late night vote on Thursday. “This is democracy. This is what we have dreamt of,” Zidane told Reuters, congratulating Magarief. “He is a political personality and everybody knows him,” Othman Sassi, a former official of the National Transitional Council, said of Magarief. An independent assembly member said several members voted for him on geographical and not religious or political grounds. The assembly sat through to 03.30am Friday, but adjourned without electing a second vice-president. From: Arabnews