Court: election of Maiteeq as Libya’s PM illegal

Libya’s Supreme Court Thursday said that the election of Ahmed Maiteeq as prime minister was illegal, court officials told Reuters.

Maiteeq’s lawyers immediately filed an appeal against the ruling which was broadcast on television.

Last month, parliament elected Maiteeq as the new prime minister in a chaotic vote which has been disputed by some lawmakers and officials who said the quorum had been missed.

Maiteeq is Libya’s fifth prime minister since Muammar Qaddafi was toppled and killed in a 2011 uprising.

Libya is in protracted turmoil three years after the NATO-backed war that ousted Qaddafi, with Islamist, anti-Islamist, regional and political factions locked in conflict.

Qaddafi’s one-man rule, followed by three years of unrest, have left Libya with few functioning institutions and no real national army to impose authority on the competing militias and brigades of former rebels who have become power-brokers.

On Wednesday, gunmen fired a rocket propelled grenade at Maiteeq’s office in the capital Tripoli.

Nobody was hurt when the grenade hit the kitchen on the same floor as Maiteeq’s office, an aide said, noting that the premier was not there at the time, Reuters reported.

In an attempt to reinforce his authority, Maiteeq took over the premier’s office on Monday night, backed by a police escort.

[With Reuters]