Maqrif to fill twin presidential roles in Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya's national assembly elected former opposition leader Mohammed Maqrif as its president late Thursday.

The win means the 72-year-old former Libyan University professor will also act as the North African country's interim president.

Maqrif, leader of National Front party, secured 113 votes in the 200-member assembly while independent Ali Zidan was second with 85 votes.

Zidan won the first round of voting with 80 votes, followed by Maqrif and the Union for Homeland Party's Abdul-Rahman Swehli, with 56 and 53 votes, respectively.

As no one managed to win an outright majority, a second round of voting took place, in which Maqrif was declared winner.

The national assembly on Wednesday took over the political reins from the National Transitional Council (NTC), which has ruled the country since last year's uprising against longtime leader Moammar Gaddafi.

Assembly members hailed Maqrif's election. Libya had "elected an experienced person, who had significant economic and political experience gained in the about four decades Maqrif spent in exile, " said Mohammed Toumi, a national assembly member for the city of Gharyan.

Maqrif was a leading figure in Libya's oldest opposition movement -- the National Front for the Salvation of Libya -- which made several attempts to end Gaddafi's rule.

He resigned in 2001 in protest against human rights violations and started to devote his time to academic research, blogging and writing. He has written many academic books on Libya's contemporary politics.