Libya: National Assembly Elects Leader

Libya’s interim national assembly picked Mohammed Magarief, the leader of the National Front party, as its president on Thursday in a vote carried out a day after the body took power from the Transitional National Council. Mr. Magarief, a longtime opponent of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who was ousted and killed last year, will lead the 200-member national assembly, which will name a prime minister, pass laws and steer Libya to full parliamentary elections after a new constitution is drafted next year. The national assembly began life on Wednesday after the transitional council was disbanded in the first peaceful transition in Libya’s modern history.

Source: New York Times