Former Libyan leaders Son to run for president.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya’s former leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, has registered as a presidential aspirant for the coming December 24 election. He has submitted his requirements to the Libyan electoral commission source stated.
His candidacy for the presidential election to the High National Electoral Commission office in the (Southern) city of Sebha,” a statement by the commission revealed on Sunday.
Gaddafi’s son is one of the most well-known figures anticipated to run for president. A list that also includes renegade eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and parliament speaker Aguila Saleh.
Portraits disseminated on social media exhibited Gaddafi, with a grey beard and wearing glasses and a conventional brown robe and turban, signing documents at the registration centre in the southern town of Sebha this morning Sunday 14 November 2021.
Despite the public backing of most Libyan contingents and foreign powers for elections on December 24, the vote is still in question as the same entities squabble over the rules and schedule.
A major conference in Paris on Friday agreed to sanction those who disrupt or prevent the vote, but there is still no agreement on rules to govern who should be able to run.
The elections are envisaged as a key moment in an UN-backed peace process to end a decade of vicious chaos that has drawn in regional powers and weakened Mediterranean stability since the 2011 NATO-backed inversion against Muammar Gaddafi.
Disputing over the election endangers unravelling the wider peace process, which also includes endeavours to unite long-divided state institutions and to pull out foreign mercenaries who remain entrenched along front lines despite a ceasefire.
While Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is likely to play on memories for the era before the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that cruised his father from power and ushered in a decade of chaos and turmoil, analysts say he may be a front runner with a meagerer chance of winning.
The Gaddafi era is still remembered by many Libyans as one of harsh but progressive autocracy, while Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and other former regime authorities have been out of power for long, they may find it difficult to mobilise as much support as major rivals.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi remains something of a cypher to many Libyans, having spent the past decade out of public sight since his capture in 2011 by people from the mountain region of Zintan.
He gave an interview to the New York Times earlier this year but has not yet made any public appearance speaking directly to Libyans.
Complicating his presidential ambitions, Gaddafi was tried in absentia in 2015 by a Tripoli court at which he appeared via videolink from Zintan, and which sentenced him to death for war crimes including killing protesters during the 2011 uprising.
He would likely face arrest or other dangers if he appeared publicly in the capital Tripoli. He is also wanted by the International Criminal Court.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was once seen by many governments as the acceptable, Western-friendly face of Libya, and a possible heir apparent. However, the wrong supporter if his father believes that he may be that unifier the country needs
politics, business, capacity building etc. 