Libyan lawmakers have selected a new interim prime minister, a week after giving a vote of no confidence to their former pick for failing to present an acceptable Cabinet.

Libya's General National Congress on Sunday elected Ali Zidan, a former career diplomat who defected in the 1980s and became an outspoken critic of former leader Moammar Gadhafi. He later became a human rights advocate.

Zidan pledged to begin working quickly in a nation that remains highly polarized after the 2011 civil war that ended Gadhafi's four-decade rule.

“The interim government will conduct itself with virtue and according to the constitutional declaration and will be a government of crisis if we are in crisis and will be a government of the people. It will be a government of consensus and, when completed, will be a government of action and implementation. The new government will begin its work as soon as it is sworn in.”

Zidan also said Sunday that security will be a priority.

A new Libyan government faces the challenge of trying to disarm and demobilize militias that maintain control over parts of the country following their participation in the revolution.