Abdel Wahab Mohamed Qaid (Arabic: عبدالوهاب محمد قايد), alias Abu Idris al-Libi is a Libyan politician and former militia leader. Since 2012, he has been a member of the Libyan Parliament (General National Congress)[1] and the head of the National Border Guard for southern Libya.[2]
After the Libyan Civil War of 2011 that led to the deposition of Gaddafi, he was elected to the General National Congress as an independent, representing a constituency in Southern Libya. After the parliament was constituted, he founded the al-Wafa Bloc (full name: al-Wafa li dimaa Al-Shuhadaa, "Remaining Faithful to the Blood of the Martyrs"), made up of former anti-Gaddafi militia fighters. He advocates a rigorous exclusion of representatives of the disempowered Gaddafi regime from public offices ("Political Exclusion Law").[9][10] He chairs the parliamentary Committee for National Security. Qaid was considered a main contender for the office of President of the General National Congress after the first President Mohammed Magariaf retired from this office due to the exclusion law in May 2013.[11][12] Unlike all other groups, the al-Wafa Bloc opposed a women's quota in the Constitutional Assembly elected in February 2014.[13] In October 2013, Russian media reported that Bassem al-Hashemi Sol, spokesman of a "Libyan Tribal association", accused Qaid of being a high-ranking al-Qaeda member.[citation needed]
