Libya’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) announced Wednesday that 10 potential candidates have registered their papers for the upcoming presidential elections, while 826 candidates have applied for parliamentary elections so far.
Khaled Omar, head of the NEC information office, said that those who submitted their candidacy papers for the presidency were Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, Khalifa Haftar, Ashid Zahiou, Sanussi Abdeslam, Abdullah Naker, Fathi Bin Shattwan, Faydan Mohammed Hamza, Mohammed al-Mazugi, and Abdul Hakim Zamouna.
The Libyan army commander Khalifa Haftar registered for presidential elections after temporarily suspending his position in the army last September to adapt to the legal requirements of the electoral law, which requires him to leave office three months before the elections.
Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, also registered his candidacy after years of absence. Saif Al-Islam was arrested in 2011 following the widespread uprising, and was sentenced to death in 2015 by an armed group, but he released in 2017. However, he is still wanted by the International Criminal Court.
Head of the Libyan High Council of State, Khaled Al-Mashri, said earlier this week that the elections scheduled for 24 December are likely to be postponed for three months, in order to reach “consensus on the election laws.”
Al-Mashri explained that the State Council “will not participate in the elections and will not obstruct them, but it has submitted appeals to the judiciary to adjudicate the decisions of the Electoral Commission.”
He pointed out the difficulty of resorting to the Supreme Court to challenge the election laws issued by the House of Representatives in light of the freezing of its constitutional powers, adding that the administrative judiciary “has the power to consider appeals related to the decisions of the Electoral Commission.”
