Businessman Ahmed Maiteeg was elected on Sunday as Libya’s new prime minister after receiving 121 votes in parliament, the official LANA news agency reported.
He was then sworn in and given two weeks to form a cabinet.
His election came in the second session of the day after an earlier session failed to secure him the 120 votes needed among the 200 members for victory.
Maiteeg, 42, is a businessman born in the coastal city of Misurata who studied economics in London. He is supported by the Islamist bloc in parliament, according to the broadcaster Al Arabiya.
He won against political analyst Omar al-Hassi. The two were selected from a group of seven candidates in a previous session last week on Tuesday but was interrupted when gunmen fired shots in the air outside the parliament building and lawmakers were evacuated out the back door.
Some members of the General National Congress were challenging Sunday’s vote. A member told al-Wasat news website that the vote was illegal because the Speaker had declared the session over, then was pressured to continue and hold another round of voting.
The member, who was not named, said Maiteeg’s supporters pressured some members who originally voted for al-Hassi to change their ballots in the second round.
The votes were held to replace prime minister-designate Abdullah al-Thini, who resigned three weeks ago, citing an attack upon his family.
Al-Thini had been appointed by Congress only the week before after it voted out the last person in the job, Ali Zeidan.
Zeidan, who had been in conflict with the assembly’s dominant Islamist faction for months, was weakened politically by his failure to prevent a tanker loaded with crude oil from setting sail from a rebel-controlled oil terminal in eastern Libya.
Libya’s interim authorities, driven by factional struggles, have been unable to gain control over the myriad revolutionary brigades that sprung up during the 2011 revolt against longtime ruler Moamer Gaddafi.