Ali Zeidan
On 9 August 2012, Congress members voted in a televised meeting for a president for the GNC. Mohamed Yousef el-Magariaf, leader of the National Front Party, won with 113 votes versus independent Ali Zeidan who secured 85 votes. From 1981 until 2011, el-Magariaf was exiled from Libya, and led the NFP's predecessor organisation—called the National Front for the Salvation of Libya—for almost 20 years.