Libya’s National Transitional Council relinquished control of power to the General National Congress, the national assemblage took form by last month’s elections. The ceremony in a conference center in Tripoli marked the country’s first law-abiding government changeover since before Moammar Gadhafi got hold of power in 1969. Wednesday’s event was held on the 20th day of Ramadan, a date selected to mark the day of remembrance of the start of the liberation of the capital city from Gadhafi’s grip.
NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil and the most older member of the body, Mohammed Ali Salim, contracted documents marking the event. Jalil then walked to the microphone and declared that the NTC had handed over the “constitutional powers of running the country” and that the GNC was, from that moment, the “exclusive legitimate representative of the Libyan people.”
As he spoke, the crowd arose to its feet and broke out in cheers, with some toning “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is Great!”) Other people toned a line that had become celebrated during the revolution: “The blood of martyrs won’t go wasted!”
Many cried at the authorisation of the new assembly representing the country’s first body shaped in a free and fair election in more than forty-seven years.Interim Prime Minister Abdul Rahim al-Kib appeared moved as he embraced Jalil The special representative of the secretary general of the UN to Libya, Ian Martin, smiled as Jalil annunciated the handover. Members of the 200-person body took the oath of office as a group, and Jalil said to them what they already acknowledged: they face major challenges in security and disarming. Militias who helped oust Gadhafi carry on operating without government oversight, still hold thousands of detainees and keep on executing arbitrary custodies
