On Sunday, Libya's General National Congress (GNC) elected Ahmed Maetig as the country's new prime minister to succeed Abdullah Al-Thinni who had handed in his resignation two weeks ago. After having received armed threats against himself and his family in connection with his choices for various cabinet posts, Al-Thinni made it clear that he would remain in office only for as long as it took to appoint a replacement. But that process was contentious and the voting session was a stormy one. At one point, GNC first Deputy President Ezzeddin Al-Awami withdrew after a verbal assault directed at him by another GNC member in the course of a quarrel that had erupted in front of the podium. The second Deputy President Saleh Al-Makhzoum then stepped up to chair the remainder of the session and announce Maetig's appointment. Maetig won 121 votes in the third round of voting on Sunday, which pitted him against Omar Al-Hassi, a university professor from Benghazi. In the first round of voting Maetig obtained 73 votes versus 43 for Al-Hassi. It was not until after some tough and bitter wrangling between the various blocs in the Libyan assembly that Maetig was able to garner the sufficient amount of votes, in a third round, to be named prime minister. After his victory was confirmed, the new prime minister was sworn into office before the GNC, which has given him two weeks to form a government. As was the case with his predecessor, Maetig will be under enormous pressures as he makes his selections. Some observers expect that he may face even greater difficulties than Al-Thinni had in view of the flare-ups of tension between political forces on Sunday. Ahmed Omar Ahmed Maetig is a businessman from a prominent family in Misrata. Born in this western city in 1972, he is married and has four children. His father held a number of high offices in the monarchical period prior to the era of the former Qaddafi regime. He is a cousin of the controversial GNC representative from Misrata, Abdel-Rahman Al-Soweilhi, grandson of the Libyan freedom fighter Ramadan Al-Soweilhi. Maetig obtained degrees in economy and business management from a university in London. During the Libyan Revolution, he took part in the fighting in Misrata and in the liberation of Tripoli. He was a member of the Chamber for the Liberation of Tripoli during the conflict and a member of the Tripoli Development and Stability Council after the fall of the previous regime. The owner of a luxury hotel in Tripoli, he also manages several economic organisations. The electoral platform that he presented to the GNC stressed four concerns: stability and security, raising living standards, national reconciliation and local government and decentralisation. In addition, Maetig pledged to restructure the security agencies and incorporate them under the Interior Ministry. Maetig will be Libya's fifth prime minister in the post-Qaddafi era. He was preceded by Abdel-Rahim Al-Kit, Mustafa Boushagur, Ali Zeidan and acting prime minister Abdullah Al-Thinni, who tendered his resignation after militiamen threatened his home and neighbourhood several weeks ago. The GNC was the scene of heated bickering on Sunday between MPs that supported Maetig and those who opposed him. When some of the mounting anger turned against the GNC's first Deputy President Al-Awami, who was chairing that day's session, Al-Awami withdrew leaving it to second Deputy President Al-Makhzoum to take over. Then the third round of voting triggered another outburst of controversy as some charged that the session headed by Al-Makhzoum, in which this round took place, was “illegal” and that the results of the final vote were invalid. The following day, the GNC ended the brief moment of uncertainty and confirmed Maetig as prime minister of the interim government. The appointment was proclaimed in a resolution signed by GNC President Nouri Abu Sahmain, who stated that a government would have to be formed within 15 days and submitted for a vote of confidence to the GNC. Immediately after Sunday's session, three GNC members – Al-Sherif Al-Wafi, Fahim Al-Ratab and Abdullah Al-Qamati – held a press conference to protest the selection of the new prime minister and to denounce the voting method used. They held that the method had caused considerable difficulties for many GNC members. Al-Wafi stated that what had happened during the voting process was “a hijacking of power in Libya.” He said that Maetig had obtained 113 votes before the commotion erupted in the chamber, forcing second Deputy President Al-Awami to adjourn the session and leave. He pointed out that according to the constitution a candidate needed to obtain a minimum of 120 votes in order to become prime minister and that Maetig had failed to reach this figure before Al-Awami adjourned the session. Ahmed Langi, a member of the GNC's legislative and constitutional committee, maintained that all the procedures were correct. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly from Tripoli, Langi said that the elections had taken place in three phases, in all of which Maetig was ahead of his rival. However, he needed to obtain a minimum of 120 votes in order to be appointed prime minister and form a government. In the second round he won 113 votes, only seven votes short of the necessary majority. That was when pandemonium broke out, with some clamouring to postpone the vote to another session when those absent at the Sunday session could be present and others protesting that Maetig should be made prime minister since he had won a majority. Langi said that in the midst of the shouting a quarrel had erupted in front of the president's podium between a GNC member and first Deputy President Al-Awami, which drove Al-Awami to withdraw from the session and storm out of the chamber. After he left, second Deputy President Al-Makhzoum took over and completed the session. According to Langi, the session cannot be said to have been adjourned when Al-Awami left. A session can only be adjourned when a certain number of GNC members submit a motion to adjourn and when this motion is brought to a vote. Affirming that Maetig obtained 121 out of the total number of votes that were cast in the third round, Langi said that he hoped Maetig would form a “balanced cabinet team, consisting of members from Cyrenaica, Tripoli and Fezan who are skilled and experienced and who will form a strong government that will steer the country to safety in this delicate period.” He said he had confidence in Maetig and hoped that everyone would work to help the new government. On Sunday evening, first Deputy President Al-Awami wrote to Al-Thinni, asking him to continue to serve as prime minister on the grounds that a replacement had not yet been elected. He said that Maetig had only received 113 votes, and therefore had not obtained the minimum majority stipulated in the August 2011 Constitutional Declaration and subsequent resolutions adopted by the GNC. Maetig refused to recognise the vote that had taken place after he left the GNC chambers. He also sent a letter to the GNC explaining his objections to what happened during the voting session on Sunday and demanded an investigation into the excesses that occurred that day and the verbal abuses that were directed at him by a GNC member. The disputes and tensions that erupted during the election of the prime minister will cast a heavy shadow over the process of picking a new government. This week, the clock began to tick on the two-week deadline that Maetig now has to complete this process.
