My latest op-ed on Libya's cabinet crisis in the Guardian's Comment is Free, co-authored with my new Director of Research Haley Cook: Democracy is Messy - Especially in Libya.After Abushagur's list was voted down, he was allowed to present an emergency replacement cabinet list. This was swiftly defeated – triggering a successful no confidence vote against him and reopening the process of selecting a new prime minister. Libya's already weak central authorities will now be left without a proper government for another few weeks, at exactly the time that they need to crack down on the militias and Islamist radicals who attacked the American mission in Benghazi, killing ambassador Chris Stevens.It is rumoured that the NFA and the Justice and Construction party are in back-channel negotiations. If an agreement were to materialise – which would have been unthinkable a month ago – it could produce a solid unity government able to take the necessary bold decisions to crack down on the militias and renew major public infrastructure projects. It must also be remembered that despite the cabinet crisis there is not a complete power vacuum in Libya. The democratically elected Congress is still in place and despite the terrorist attack on the American mission, Libyans have spontaneously united to denounce violence and rebuild their nation. It is far too early to predict the demise of the Libyan democratic experiment.
Democracy is Messy - Especially in Libya