Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC)elected little-known academic Abdurrahim el-Keib, a former electrical engineering professor at the University of Alabama, as the Libyan interim prime minister. Life in Libya returns slowly to ‘ normal ‘.

Tripoli / NationalTurk – El-Keib was appointed to head the NTC’s executive council after gaining 26 out of 51 votes yesterday in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. He takes the seat over from Mahmoud Jibril, who resigned when Libya’s ‘ liberation ‘ was declared on Oct. 23, three days after the ‘demise’ of Muammar Gaddafi and the fall of his hometown of Sirte to forces loyal to the Libyan transitional council administration.

New Libyan PM Abdurrahim el-Keib

El-Keib ‘left everything’ to join the NTC, formed shortly after Gaddafi put down anti-government protests that erupted in the eastern city of Benghazi in February, Salem Kenan, a member of the council told. El-Keib, who is also a businessman, was born in Tripoli, Kenan stated.

El-Keib earned a masters degree from the University of Southern California in 1976 and doctorate from North Carolina State University in 1984 before teaching in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, according to a biography posted by the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, where he is listed as chairman of the department of electrical engineering.

Under plans outlined by the NTC already in May, Libyans will choose a panel to oversee the writing of a new constitution ahead of parliamentary elections within one year. That will be followed by a referendum and presidential and legislative elections for a national assembly. With vast oil and gas reserves and a relatively small population, Libya has the potential to become a prosperous nation, but regional rivalries pent up during Muammar Gaddafi’s 42 years of iron fist rule could descend into a cycle of revenge.

Libya: a hard road ahead

The always fractured return to normal life is in fact the essence of a successful liberation. Things will not be made perfect. But they will, or they can, be made better. The problems facing Libya are difficult, but it also enjoys significant advantages. The first problem, at least in terms of time, is unity. The National Transitional Council, until now weighted toward easterners and Benghazi people, must swiftly bring in a balancing percentage of westerners and a significant representation of Berbers from the south. Equally, it must reach out to engage people from Muammar Gaddafi’s core tribal constituencies. Tribe matters much less in urbanised Libya than it used too but it is still important, and discrimination on tribal grounds would be foolish. That would be playing Gaddafi’s own divide-and-rule game after he is gone. A parallel process under which large parts of the police and the armed forces, apart from those with serious blood on their hands, will be retained is already envisaged in plans made by the NTC.

Nato : Liberation of Libya Mission Complete

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization yesterday formally cocluded its seven-month campaign to protect civilians in Libya with a visit by its chief in command, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to Libyan Capital Tripoli. He declared the mission had been successful and that ‘it is now up to the Libyan people to plan their own future.’

Since taking control of Tripoli, the NTC has sought to unite the factions that helped end Gaddafi’s 42-year one-man rule, disarm militias and restore oil output. Yesterday, Jibril warned against delaying elections, citing the risk of a power vacuum. The United Nations first demand from new Libya arrived as the UN Security Council yesterday asked the new Libyan government to prevent shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles from falling into the hands of terrorists.