Libya is about to get a new national holiday. The country’s new leaders are set to officially announce Libya’s liberation and victory over Gaddafi’s regime on Sunday.
The liberation is to be declared in the city of Benghazi, and not in the capital, Tripoli, interim government officials have announced. During the uprising that saw the overthrow of Gaddafi’s regime, Bengazi hosted the political center of the opposition.
But according to Reuters, the choice of the location for the declaration has been the subject of debate and speculation since Gaddafi was killed on Thursday.
The chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, will make the declaration later on Sunday, at around 19:00 GMT.
The country’s acting Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said on Saturday the first elections in Libya are scheduled to take place within eight months – by June 2012.
A national congress of Libya needs to be chosen first in order to draft a constitution and form an interim government, which would have control until the first presidential elections.
“The first election should take place within a period of eight months, maximum, to constitute a national congress of Libya, some sort of parliament,” Reuters quotes Jibril as saying at a news conference in Jordan.
“This national congress would have two tasks: to draft a constitution, on which we would have a referendum, and the second to form an interim government to last until the first presidential elections are held,” he added.