Libya: Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, son of ex-dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is running for presidential election – archyworldys

Saif Al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, presented his official candidacy for the presidential election scheduled for December on Sunday, November 14, according to the electoral commission organizing a crucial double ballot to get Libya out of chaos.

“The candidate Saif Al-Islam Mouammar Kadhafi has submitted his candidacy for the presidency of the Libyan state”, announced the High National Electoral Commission (HCEN), which organizes the presidential election on December 24 and the legislative elections a month later.

“He submitted his application documents to the HCEN office in Sebha [chef-lieu du Fezzan, région méridionale de la Libye], thus completing all the legal conditions required by Law No. 1 relating to the election of the Head of State, adopted by Parliament ”, she added in a statement posted on Facebook.

49-year-old Saif Al-Islam also had his voter card issued in the town of Sebha, according to the electoral commission. The HCEN announced the opening Monday of the submission of candidatures for the presidential election.

First ballot since the fall of his father’s regime

Outcome of a laborious political process sponsored by the United Nations, the presidential and legislative elections are supposed to turn the page on a decade of chaos since the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, killed in 2011 during a popular revolt, and to put an end to the fratricidal struggles between the two rival camps, the one in the west of the country and the other in the east.

At the end of July, Saif Al-Islam, younger son of the dictator, had mentioned during a interview given to New York Times his intention to run for president. Captured in November 2011 by an armed group in Zentan, in north-western Libya, he was sentenced to death in 2015 after a speedy trial.

The group detaining him had nevertheless refused to hand him over to the authorities or to the International Criminal Court, which has been looking for him since 2011 on charges of “Crimes against humanity”. The group released him in 2017 and his trace was lost.