Libyan Election Commission says Saif Gaddafi is not a candidate Election News

Among the 25 registered presidential candidates who were disqualified from running in the Dec. 24 election were the son of the former ruler.

The Libyan election commission has said Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi, could not run in the country’s scheduled presidential election in December.

Gaddafi was one of 25 candidates rejected by the commission on Wednesday, in an initial decision pending an appeal process that will ultimately be decided by the judiciary. About 98 Libyans registered as candidates.

A military prosecutor in Tripoli asked him to dismiss Gaddafi after he was tried in absentia for war crimes in 2015, in 2011 he removed his deceased father for fighting the insurgency.

At the time Gaddafi appeared via a video link in the tape, where he was captured by fighters trying to flee Libya after his father’s overthrow. He denied having done anything wrong.

Two other well-known candidates were also left out, Ali Zeidan and Nouri Abusahmain.

Clashes over election rules, including the legal basis for the December 24 vote and the right to stand as a candidate, threaten to disrupt an internationally protected peace process to end a decade of chaos.

Other candidates initially approved by the commission were also accused of potential violations of political rivals.

Interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah pledged not to run for president as a condition of his tenure, and did not step down three months before the vote, as required by election law.

Another notable candidate, Khalifa Haftar, a renowned military commander stationed in the east, is said to have U.S. nationality, which can also be ruled out. Many people in western Libya also accuse him of war crimes committed in the 2019-20 Tripoli attack.

Haftar denies war crimes and says he is not a U.S. citizen. Dbeibah said the election rules issued by parliamentary speaker candidate Aguila Saleh in September are “flawed”.

Libyan envoy Jan Kubis, who is stepping down, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that the Libyan judiciary will take the final decision on the rules and whether candidates can be selected.

Kubis told the Security Council he would continue to work on Wednesday until the end of next month’s election.