Giving way to the country's unruly militias, Libya's General National Congress, its proto-parliament, on May 5th passed a law purging the body politic of officials who held senior posts under Muam-mar Qaddafi. After months of deadlock in the congress, Libya's disgruntled militiamen forced the issue by blockading the foreign and justice ministries and storming three other ministries. Anyone who held a senior post under Qaddafi in government, the civil service, the army, the police, the judiciary, in banking or in the state-owned national oil company will be disqualified from office for ten years. This is likely to exclude two of the country's most prominent politicians since Oaddafi's fall in October 2011-and may badly shrink the pool of relatively efficient people who are needed if Libya is to revive.
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