Libyan parliamentarians elected the Islamist-backed Ahmed Mitig on May 4 as the country’s fifth prime minister since Muammar Gaddafi was forced from office in 2011. It was the latest success in the rise and rise of Islamists in the North African state.

The vote was immediately condemned as illegal, including by the official spokesman and at least one member who voted for Mr Mitig.

…His predecessor, Abdullah al-Thinni, appointed on an interim basis, declined to stand after gunmen attacked his family home in the middle of April. Before that, Ali Zeidan survived a botched kidnap attempt, gunfire, and allegations of corruption, before finally resigning and fleeing to Germany.

A previous attempt to elect the prime minister was stymied on Wednesday when supporters of a candidate eliminated at an early stage stormed the session, firing guns.

Mitig, a 42-year-old businessman from Misurata, won 121 votes out of 200.

However, it is unclear a day later whether Mitig is still the premier. Initially, the General National Congress (the country’s parliament) granted him two weeks to form a government. Despite that, later in the day, First Deputy Speaker Ezzedin al-Awami said the vote was invalid. A group of non-Islamist MPs walked out of the session.

There have been strong upsurges in Islamist power and sectarian violence since Gaddafi’s fall.

Radical Islamists have unleashed a string of attacks on foreign and Christian targets. These actions include threats, beatings, public lashings and desecration of holy sites…

Women are particularly threatened by the fundamentalist interpretation of sharia that these militants seek to enforce…

With this history in mind, some see recent events in Libya as the natural consequences of a combination of instability, a power vacuum and an influx of jihadist militants.

[Photo: ليبي صح / Wiki Commons]