The President of Libya’s General National Congress, Mohamed Magarief [Magariaf] has submitted his resignation as a result of the controversial law banning all those who worked in senior posts with Gaddafi’s regime.
Critics of the so-called ‘political isolation’ law say it is unconstitutional, but Mr. Magarief said in a speech at a plenary session of the General National Congress that he was stepping down in complying with it.
He also called on all others to do the same, telling the the General National Congress (GNC) that “everyone must obey the law out of respect for legality and democracy".
Mr. Magarief was elected as president of the Libyan National Congress in August after the first national elections that took place on 7 July 2012.
An economist and former ambassador to India under Gaddafi, Magarief was born in 1940 in the eastern city of Benghazi. He spent 31 years in exile, including 20 years as a political refugee in the United States after he founded an opposition group, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, in the early 1980s aimed at toppling the dictator Gaddafi from power.
Magarief's first deputy Giuma Attaiga will be acting congress president until an election for a successor was held. Diplomats in Tripoli said it was still too early to identify any frontrunners.
(Sources: Al Bawaba, BBC)
