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Ali Zeidan elected as Libya’s PM

Libya’s General National Congress elected Ali Zeidan, a long-time opponent of deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi, as prime minister on Sunday, the assembly’s chief said.

“Ali Zeidan is elected prime minister and is asked to propose a cabinet within two weeks,” Mohammed Megaryef, president of the national assembly, said in remarks broadcast on television.

Benefitting from the backing of the liberal coalition in the 200-seat assembly, Zeidan won 93 of the votes cast, trumping the 85 garnered by the only other candidate, local government minister Mohammed AlHrari. The liberal National Forces Alliance (NFA), the largest political bloc in the assembly, rallied behind Zeidan, who had been elected to the legislative body on an independent ticket.

He had to give up his seat to run for the post of premier.

A former career diplomat, Zeidan defected in 1980 while he was serving at the Libyan embassy in India, and spent the next three decades in exile.

He was a member of the opposition National Front for the Salvation of Libya. —