The court of first instance in the Libyan city of Zawiya decided to exclude Khalifa Haftar from the list of candidates for presidential elections scheduled on 24 December.
The judges of the Zawiya City Court declared the acceptance of the appeal against Haftar and excluded him from the list of candidates.
On 16 November, Haftar announced his candidacy for Libya’s presidential election, formally submitting his nomination papers to the Benghazi Election Commission, but a rival candidate later challenged his request.
The strongman in the East of the country hopes to come to power, and months ago he stepped down, transferring his military duties in command of the National Army to his deputy, with the aim of running.
Article 12 of the electoral law stipulates that a candidate must relinquish his official position and not perform any official functions within state organs and institutions, 3 months before the submission of his candidacy.
On the other hand, the US ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, said that his country shares the concerns of the Libyans and the international community, calling that armed parties and violence should not be allowed to threaten elections scheduled for later this month.
Norland on Wednesday renewed his call on all parties to calm tensions and respect the legal and administrative electoral process currently led by Libya.
This comes after the Libyan Interior Minister, Khaled Mazen, confirmed yesterday that the widening of security breaches in recent days has threatened the country’s electoral process.
He said in a joint press conference with Justice Minister Halima Abdel Rahman, that the two ministries have received many complaints from several parties about security breaches, pointing out that this situation has become alarming and affects the integrity of the elections and the integrity of their procedures and hinders the process of securing them.
