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Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, a businessman turned politician, has been chosen as Libya’s new interim prime minister following lengthy United Nations-sponsored talks aimed at ending a decade of conflict in the country of Libya. North Africa.
Dbeibah, with a three-member Presidential Council, will have the crucial and difficult task of preparing the ground for fair and transparent national elections in December, as well as ensuring the safe participation of Libyans in the electoral process.
Dbeibah’s choice on Friday came as a surprise to many, given the construction mogul’s close association with longtime former Libya ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
Born in 1959 in the western city of Misrata, traditionally seen as a bastion of resistance to Gaddafi’s grip on power for four decades, Dbeibah moved to Canada early in his career to pursue graduate studies in engineering at the ‘University of Toronto.
He returned to his hometown in the midst of a construction boom where he finally caught the attention of close associates of Gaddafi.
His expertise quickly won him the trust of Gaddafi, who in 2007 entrusted him with the task of leading the Libyan State Investment and Development Corporation (LIDCO), responsible for some of the country’s largest public works projects. , including the construction of 1,000 housing units. in the hometown of the leader of Sirte.
Gaddafi’s reign ended in 2011, when he was overthrown in a NATO-backed uprising and then killed. Since then, the oil-rich country has been plunged into chaos, with two rival governments eventually emerging – the UN-recognized National Accord Government (GNA) in the west and a rival government in the allied east. to the renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar – and the clashing armed groups.
The latest round of diplomacy – Libya’s biggest peace effort in years – gathered pace after Haftar’s forces were pushed back after their 14-month attack on the capital, Tripoli, last June.
On Friday, 75 Libyan delegates selected by the UN – ranging from regional and tribal figures to representatives of political factions – voted in Geneva to choose the acting prime minister and the three members of the presidential council – each representing one of the main regions of Libya.
Dbeibah, widely regarded as an outsider compared to other candidates, now faces an ambitious and stimulating program.
He has 21 days to form a cabinet and three more weeks to win a vote of confidence in parliament.
By March 19 at the latest, he should be ready to move forward with a 10-month transition aimed at preparing the country for the December 24 elections.
Speaking via videoconference at the meeting in Switzerland ahead of Friday’s vote, the 61-year-old pledged to “use education and training as a path to stability.”
“We will work so that the security organs are professional and that the weapons are placed under the monopoly of the state,” he said.
Dbeibah also promised to create a ministry of “national reconciliation” to court foreign investors and create jobs for young people.
He set himself the goal of putting an end “within a maximum period of six months” to the daily power cuts that have plagued Libya for years.
World powers, including the United States and Russia, have welcomed the vote in Geneva, but some analysts, and the Libyans themselves, remain skeptical.
“The government will have a great job to do; it won’t be easy, ”Tripoli resident Allaedin Sheryana told Al Jazeera. “We hope that they will be able to make changes, but since this is very short term, I doubt they will be able to do much.”
“The only thing we want from this government is to organize elections,” said Atef Alherizy, another resident of the capital. “We want the decision about who holds power to be up to the people.”
Wolfgang Pusztai, security and policy analyst and former Austrian defense attaché in Libya, said Dbeibah’s past could undermine his credibility.
“Dbeibah’s candidacy is still under debate. He was the head of the Libyan investment and development holding company under Gaddafi and he was allegedly involved in corruption, money laundering, financing of the Muslim Brotherhood, vote buying, etc. Pusztai told Al Jazeera.
“Whether this is true or not, it all depends on perception.”
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