Libya's new PM wins confidence vote

Libya's newly-elected Prime Minister Ahmed Maitiq won a confidence vote Sunday after a controversial parliamentary election and formed a Islamist-backed cabinet.

Maitiq won 83 of the total 93 votes during the session, Xinhua quoted lawmaker Mohammed Kilani as saying. Maitiq's cabinet candidates also gained "full trust of the parliament".

"We hope he will improve the security situation and speed up the development projects of the country," Kilani said.

Maitiq was elected as Libya's new prime minister in early May, but a number of lawmakers, including Vice President of the parliament Azzedine Awami, charged that the voting process was against the law.

The parliament is now deeply divided between Islamist and secular lawmakers. Only 93 of the 200 lawmakers attended Sunday's confidence vote. They met in a former royal hall in Tripoli under tight security since the regular parliament building was still closed after attacks by retired Major General Khalifa Haftar's forces.

Since last week Haftar has launched a series of military actions against the parliament in the name of "purging terrorists" and try to force it to abandon power, while the parliament condemned Haftar's maneuvers as a "coup."