Libyan moderate coalition wins election

A moderate coalition has beaten the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya's first post-Gaddafi election, bucking the trend of success for Islamist parties in Arab spring countries.

The National Forces Alliance, led by wartime prime minister Mahmud Jibril, gained 39 of 80 seats available to parties in the general national congress. The Justice and Construction Party, which was launched by Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood, took only 17 seats. The remainder of party seats went to a constellation of smaller parties. The results were welcomed in the West, with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the head of Nato, whose forces were crucial in removing Col Gaddafi, hailing the elections as “an impressive step forward”. The success of the NFA did not however translate into a majority, because a further 120 seats were allotted to independent candidates whose allegiances are hard to pin down. The NFA is seen to be at the more progressive end of Libya’s political spectrum. It is led by technocrats who lived abroad and advocate a moderate Islam, economic liberalisation and openness to the West. Mr Jibril played a key role drumming up international support for the 2011 revolution that toppled Col Muammar Gaddafi’s brutal and corrupt 42-year regime,