By Noora Ibrahim.
Benghazi, 26 June 2014:
A new mayor was elected today for Benghazi in a ceremony that some of the city’s . . .[restrict]new councillors wanted delayed because of yesterday’s killing of human right’s lawyer Salwa Bugaighis and the kidnapping of her husband, Essam Al-Ghariani.
Ghariani is one of the city’s new councillors and would have been present at the event to swear in the new councillors and then chose a new mayor. It is not known if he is alive or dead.
According to Awad Alqawiri, who topped the ballot in the municipal elections two months ago with 12,120 votes, some members wanted the ceremony postponed in response to what had happened. However, they were told that this was not possible at this late stage.
Once the eight out the nine councillors were sworn in by the Local Government Minister, Salah Said at the ceremony at the city’s Fadeel Hotel, they then held the election for mayor. There were three candidates: Alqawiri; Mahmud Al-Kikhia who had come second in the April elections with 5,510 votes; and Tariq Al-Urfi who had come fifth with 961 votes.
In event, Urfi, although relatively unknown in Benghazi, won the contest with five votes, compared to two for Alqawiri and one for Kikhia. He now takes over as Mayor of Benghazi. [/restrict]
