A transitional government in Libya has taken power officially beginning a tenure designed to end with democratic elections late this year.
In the capital Tripoli Fayez Sarraj, head of the outgoing United Nations-supported administration in western Libya, transferred power to Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and Mohammad Younes Menfi, who chairs a three-member Presidential Council.
The ceremony in Tripoli came a day after Dbeibah and his Cabinet were sworn in before lawmakers and Libya’s top judges in the eastern town of Tobruk.
Lawmakers had already endorsed the interim government last week amid international pressure to implement a U.N.-brokered political roadmap.
That roadmap, agreed to by a U.N.-picked Libyan political forum last year, set Dec. 24 for general elections in the oil-rich country.
The unexpectedly smooth transfer of power is seen as an important step to end the chaos in the North African country.
The lack of a proper handover among legislators in 2014 was a major factor in the split of Libya’s institutions.
