NTC Handing Over Power to Assembly

Photo Credit: AFP

The Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) is preparing to hand over power to the assembly that Libyans elected one month ago. Mustafa Abdel Jalil will transfer authority to the eldest member of the assembly tomorrow in a late-evening ceremony in Tripoli, after which the NTC will officially be dissolved. A committee will also be chosen to write internal procedural rules for the assembly.

Najla Abdurrahman writes for Al-Jazeera on developments on the ground in Libya this summer and criticizes coverage in Western media which has portrayed the country as chaotic, a representation she says is largely false: “alarmist descriptions of unbridled violence, chaos and state failure are simply untenable at this point, and betray a lack of judiciousness in much of the current discussion on Libya.”

Additionally, Libyan Prime Minister Abderrahim al-Kib visited Egypt Monday, where he met with various ministers and discussed bringing Egyptian workers back to Libya, border restrictions, and economic cooperation. Al-Kib was in Morocco Tuesday, where leaders also discussed economic cooperation, as well as the crisis in Mali, which has been exacerbated by the flow of weapons from Libya.

Meanwhile, Western music can now be heard on Libyan radio for the first time in decades. Radio Zone, a station founded by young Libyans after the uprising, broadcasts hip-hop and rock music, and English-language programming, all of which were banned under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi. Young workers at the station talked about the importance of newly free outlets for expression: “Now we have a say, and we care. The youngsters are watching and they are not going to tolerate another Gaddafi.”