Those Libyan Elections

by Felix July 15 2012
A headline in the Guardian, July 14 : Mahmoud Jibril seeks coalition with Libya's Islamists after his poll win makes it clear that this was the "wrong result" in a bogus election in which there were no candidates with links to the past Government.
"Nobody saw this coming," said Dirk Vandewalle, a US academic and former adviser to UN special envoy for Libya, Ian Martin. , i.e. democracy producing the wrong result. Normally this needs a post-election "correction". So Mahmoud Jibril, who trounced the Muslim Brotherhood party, "Justice and Construction" is now seeking a grand coalition. No mention of Abdelhakim Belhaj of the Al-Watan , or Homeland or Libyan National party in that article. So what is he up to?
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi of Brasenose College Oxford also mis-read the tea leaves: Rethinking Libya, July 12 2012, The American Spectator: It appears that I underestimated the stigma associated with ties to foreign powers for Islamists (i.e. Qatar, and its sycophantic media channel, Al-Jazeera...) However, Bloomberg noted on July 10, U.S.-Educated Academic Leads Early Libyan Election Results: “The Muslim Brotherhood isn’t doing as well in Libya, as they don’t have the same grass-roots organization as in Egypt or Tunisia to gain and mobilize support,” Emad Mostaque, a London- based emerging-markets strategist at Religare Noah, said today by e-mail. “Voting in Libya has gone along tribal and familial lines......Abdurrahman Sewehli, leader of the Union for Homeland party, which came in first in the coastal city of Misrata, yesterday ruled out working with Jibril, saying he had been too close to the previous government. However, as Tony Cartalucci noted also on July 10, in The Libyan Election Farce,All candidates [are] neo-imperial candidates It is instrtuctive to note the nonsense spouted by Fox News on July 7,before any results were known Outcome of Libyan elections could spell trouble for US: According to news reports this week, the emir of a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization [Belhaj, my reading of foreign being US in this context...] is edging closer to securing a leadership role in Libya’s new government.
They pretend they don't want it, but deep down they do. Watch Belhaj pop up in the coalition. As the New York Times reported back in September 2011, Islamists’ Growing Sway Raises Questions for Libya, Mr. Belhaj has become so much an insider lately that he is seeking to unseat Mahmoud Jibril, the American-trained economist who is the nominal prime minister of the interim government, after Mr. Jibril obliquely criticized the Islamists. . Insider??? Where, with whom? To continue with the article by Rod Nordland and David D Kirkpatrick: “Jibril will be gone soon,” one aide to Mr. Belhaj said. And Mr.[Ali Al-] Sallabi [now leader of Belhaj's Al-Watan party] said that Mr. Jibril, along with the American-educated finance and oil minister, Ali Tarhouni, were ushering in a “new era of tyranny and dictatorship,” Al Jazeera reported.
Whoops.
Stop press. As Umar Khan has pointed out, The Future of Libya after elections, July 13 2012, FIKRA, the Jalil - NTC deal just prior to the election entrusted the law making part of government to an equal three-way split of 60 seats divided between the three old divisions, thus sending the balance away from Tripoli region, a sop to the federalists of Benghazi. Also, Widely believed to be a result of bargaining ["imput" from the Brigades no doubt], a minister from each of the two cities [of Misrata and Zintan] was awarded the influential roles of Minister of Defense and Minister of the Interior". How this move will reign in the militias remains to be seen. Only 62% of voters could be bothered with the election, many having no choice they liked, and Belhaj has gone to Tunisia to meet the Ennahda Movement as his Muslim Brotherhood claim 50% of the invidual seats in Libya.