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Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, a businessman-turned-politician, was chosen as Libya’s new interim prime minister after lengthy United Nations-sponsored talks aimed at ending a decade of conflict in the North African country.
Dbeibah, together with a three-member Presidential Council, will have the crucial and difficult task of preparing the ground for a fair and transparent national elections in December, as well as ensuring the safe participation of Libyans in the electoral process.
Dbeibah’s election on Friday came as a surprise to many, given the construction magnate’s close association with Libya’s former ruler, Muammar Gaddafi.
Born in 1959 in the western city of Misrata, traditionally seen as a bastion of resistance to Gaddafi’s four-decade rule in power, Dbeibah moved to Canada early in his career to pursue an engineering degree from the University. from Toronto.
He returned to his hometown amid a construction boom where he finally caught the attention of Gaddafi’s close associates.
His experience soon earned him the trust of Gaddafi, who in 2007 entrusted him with the task of leading the state-owned Libyan Investment and Development Company (LIDCO), responsible for some of the country’s largest public works projects, including the construction of 1,000 households. in the hometown of the leader of Sirte.
Gaddafi’s rule ended in 2011, when he was toppled in a NATO-backed uprising and later assassinated. Since then, the oil-rich country has been mired in chaos, with two rival governments eventually emerging: the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in the west and a rival government in the east allied with the renegade military commander. Khalifa Haftar. and armed groups fighting each other.
The latest round of diplomacy, Libya’s biggest peace effort in years, accelerated after Haftar’s forces were driven back in their 14-month assault 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 elect the interim prime minister and the three members of the presidential council, each representing one of the main regions of Libya.
Dbeibah, seen largely as an outsider compared to the other candidates, now faces an ambitious and challenging program.
You have 21 days to form a cabinet and another three weeks to win a vote of confidence in parliament.
By March 19 at the latest, it should be ready to move forward with a 10-month transition aimed at preparing the country for the December 24 elections.
Speaking by video conference at the meeting in Switzerland before 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 the weapons are placed under the monopoly of the State,” he said.
Dbeibah has also promised to establish a “national reconciliation” ministry to attract foreign investors and create jobs for young people.
It has set itself a goal of ending “within six months” the daily power outages that have plagued Libya for years.
World powers, including the United States and Russia, welcomed the vote in Geneva, but some analysts, and Libyans themselves, remain skeptical.
“The government will have a great task at hand; It won’t be easy, ”Tripoli resident Allaedin Sheryana told Al Jazeera. “We hope they can make some changes, but because it is such a short timeframe, I doubt they can do much.”
“The only thing we want from this government is to bring us elections,” said Atef Alherizy, another resident of the capital. “We want the decision of who has power to go back to the people.”
Wolfgang Pusztai, a security and policy analyst and former Austrian defense attaché in Libya, said Dbeibah’s past may undermine his credibility.
“Dbeibah’s candidacy is still up for debate. He was the head of Libya’s investment and development company under Gaddafi and was allegedly involved in corruption, money laundering, Muslim Brotherhood financing, vote buying, etc. ”Pusztai told Al Jazeera.
“Regardless of whether this is true or not, it is about perception.”
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