Final results in Libya’s election have confirmed that the centrist National Forces Alliance has a commanding position in the new parliament, winning more than double the seats of its principle rival, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction party.
After delays and recounts, Libya’s election commission announced that the July 7 poll has given the NFA, led by a US-trained economist, Mahmoud Jibril, and its allies 41 seats to the Justice and Construction party’s 17.More conservative Islamist parties fared even worse, with the al-Wattan party of Abdul Hakim Belhaj, a former Islamic fighter who is suing former foreign secretary Jack Straw for alleged complicity in his rendition by the CIA in 2004, failing to win a single party seat.
Jibril, a former economic adviser to Muammar Gaddafi who defected during last year’s revolution to serve as the first rebel PM, convinced Libyan voters with his mix of moderate Islam and pro-business policies.