The return was announced with great fanfare in mid-November, but the project has just hit a wall. The Libyan High Electoral Commission decided on Wednesday to reject the candidacy of Seif al-Islam Gaddafi for the presidential election on December 24, citing the criminal charges against him.
The son of ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi hoped that these elections, planned with the help of the UN to bring the country out of a decade of chaos, would allow him to succeed his father in bringing unity to a deeply divided country . He has the possibility of appealing this decision in the coming days.
Mr. Gaddafi faces an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accuses him of a “crime against humanity” for his active participation in the crackdowns carried out by Colonel Gaddafi’s regime against the Spring Libyan, in 2011.
The name of the ex-dictator’s son was included on Wednesday on the list of 25 candidates who were not selected by the country’s electoral commission. The body which supervises the holding of the next ballot indicated that according to the electoral law, any candidate “must not have been convicted of a dishonorable crime” and must present an extract of clean criminal record. A total of 98 people ran for this presidential election, the first ballot by universal suffrage for the election of the president in this country since independence in 1951 and the coup d’état of 1969, which brought Gaddafi father to power.
49-year-old Seif al-Islam Gaddafi had a complicated candidacy due to his 2015 death sentence by a special court in Tripoli for the regime’s bloody crackdown on the 2011 insurgency, in addition to the charges against him by the ICC. An amnesty law passed by the Parliament taking refuge in Tobruk, in a Libya still divided between the Cyrenaica region, to the east, dominated by forces loyal to Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and Tripolitania, to the west, however commuted this sentence under house arrest.
Marshal Haftar is also among the candidates for this election, alongside the influential ex-Minister of the Interior Fathi Bachagha and the head of the interim government, Abdelhamid Dbeibah, whose candidacies were approved by the commission. electoral.
Among the former members of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, we also find his former secretary and treasurer, Bachir Saleh, and one of his former spokespersons, Khaled Kaïm.
Crucial and uncertain elections
The rejection of the predictable candidacy of this other Gaddafi is announced while the decision-making elections still face some uncertainty. A fragility maintained this week by the surprise resignation of the UN envoy for Libya, the Slovak Jan Kubis, less than a month before this crucial presidential election for the country.
On Tuesday, he did not give clear reasons for this sudden departure to members of the UN Security Council. His departure is effective on December 10, but Mr. Kubis has indicated that he is ready to remain in office until the beginning of next year and until the presidential and legislative elections, scheduled for a month later, are held.
On Wednesday, the 15 members of the Security Council urged “all Libyan stakeholders to commit to accept the election results and to respect the rights of their political opponents before, during and after the elections.” They also recalled “that persons or entities which threaten the peace, stability or security of Libya” or who undermine and hinder the political transition, “including by obstructing or undermining the elections, may be targeted by sanctions. “.
Libyan Ambassador to the UN Taher El-Sonni said his country was grateful for “all international initiatives loaded with good intentions”, but also recalled the “moral responsibility” of several member countries of the Security Council. in the Libyan chaos of the past 10 years. He also called for respect for the Libyans wanting to “get out of the crisis on their own”.
With Agence France-Presse