Skip to main content

NTC begins Sunday to discuss new, temporary government

By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 9:12 AM EDT, Sat September 24, 2011
Libya's National Transitional Council says the country is not yet fully liberated.
Libya's National Transitional Council says the country is not yet fully liberated.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • The NTC wants to form a government that will carry Libya into elections
  • Forming the new government could take a week, a senior NTC member says
  • The interim government would include a premier, a vice premier, and 22 ministers

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Libya's National Transitional Council will hold an urgent meeting Sunday to discuss the formation of an interim government, a senior council member told CNN Friday.

Mohammed Naser, the council member, said the formation of a government could take up to one week, but NTC members agreed that the interim government would include a premier, a vice premier, and 22 ministers. Naser did not give further details.

Earlier this week, Elamin Belhaj, a senior member of the NTC, told CNN the formation of a Libyan government would not be announced until anti-Gadhafi forces controlled the borders of the country and liberated three cities that still remained under loyalist control -- Bani Walid, Sirte and Sabha -- a task that could take up to one month, he said.

"We are not a fully established country," he said this week of the fact that Libya has not been completely liberated.

The NTC, he said, will expand as cities are liberated in order to give representation to all regions of the country. Ultimately, the council could have approximately 80 members; it currently has 43.

Belhaj said that after liberation, the NTC will create an interim government by appointing a prime minister who will be responsible for forming the government. The prime minister will decide how many ministers will be in that interim government, but he must return to the NTC for approval of that government.

Belhaj explained that the NTC decided to use the expression "interim government" because "the international community wants to deal with us through a government."

That interim government will prepare for the election within eight months of a National Congress, a body that will have 200 members. At the creation of the congress, the interim government will cease to exist.

The National Congress, Belhaj said, will form a committee to write a constitution for Libya, which will then be presented to the Libyan people to vote on in a referendum. If it's approved, Libya would have a permanent democratic constitution for the first time, he said.

In the final stage of transition, Libya will create a political system, including the formation of political parties that will participate in general parliamentary and presidential elections.

Asked to comment on charges that the ranks of the NTC are divided by regional rivalries, Belhaj said there is no division in the NTC. Islamists and secularists are "all together" during this stage of revolution, he said.

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.

ADVERTISEMENT
Part of complete coverage on
updated 5:15 AM EST, Tue January 10, 2012
Nine-year-old Mahmood Ahmed was playing near his home in Zintan, western Libya, when he found a green object he had never seen before.
updated 11:33 AM EST, Thu November 24, 2011
Abdel Hafiz Ghoga (L), vice chairman of the NTC listens Libya's interim prime minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib
Libya's newly appointed Cabinet faces a tough job. It must restore order, draft a new constitution and lead the country into democratic elections.
updated 4:28 PM EST, Sat November 19, 2011
After months in hiding, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi was finally tracked down in Libya's southern desert by fighters from the western Zintan mountains.
Click on countries in CNN's interactive map to see the roots of their unrest and where things stand today.
updated 6:39 AM EST, Tue November 8, 2011
One of Moammar Gadhafi's top security officials says the ousted Libyan leader spent his final days "worried and erratic."
For the latest news on developments in the Middle East and North Africa in Arabic.
updated 4:06 PM EDT, Thu October 20, 2011
For 42 years, Moammar Gadhafi ruled Libya with an iron fist, a mercurial leader who inspired fear in Libya and beyond.
Moammar Gadhafi
Not too long ago, the African stage belonged to Moammar Gadhafi -- with fellow leaders nicknaming him "king of kings of Africa."
updated 6:39 AM EST, Tue November 8, 2011
Mansour Daou is known as the "Black Box" of Moammar Gadhafi's regime -- like an aircraft's data recorder, he knows some of Libya's darkest secrets.
updated 5:58 PM EDT, Fri October 14, 2011
sirtehouse
On the outskirts of Sirte, a mansion lies in ruins. This was Moammar Gadhafi's home in the city of his birth.
ADVERTISEMENT