By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 5 April 2014:
Abdul Basit Igtet, the Libyan entrepreneur who is one of the four main candidates being . . .[restrict]considered by Congress to be prime minister has withdrawn from the contest. In a statement on his Facebook page he says that political infighting in Congress that ignored the crisis in the country and made the suffering worse.
He says, however, that he intends to stand as president once the new constitution is in place.
In his statement he calls on acting Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni to publicly state his position on the debate in Congress about who becomes Prime Minister. He says that if Congress sticks with Al-Thinni or chooses Omar Al-Hassi, he will support either one of them. Whoever is chosen, he says, should ask the former prime minister, Ali Zeidan, to return to Libya and formally hand.
Igtet, although said to be one of the top four of 17 nominations for the premiership, was not seen as having any chance of success, even as a compromise figure. Congress is deadlocked between the two front runners, Omar Al-Hassi and Mohamed Abu Baker, with Al-Thinni seen both as the compromise candidate and the logical one given that whoever is chosen will have little more than 12 weeks in the job. [/restrict]
