(Tripoli) The son of ex-dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Seif Al-Islam, was the first heavyweight in Libyan political life to submit his candidacy for the presidential election scheduled for the end of December on Sunday, while he is wanted by the International Criminal Court for “crimes against humanity”.
To everyone’s surprise and when it was not known where he was in recent years, Seif al-Islam, 49, with a salt and pepper beard and wearing prescription glasses, appeared on the airwaves of the electoral commission in Sebha (south), one of the three authorized centers, with Tripoli (west) and Benghazi (east), according to images relayed by local media.
Wrapped in a brown abaya and turban of the same color tied on the head in the Bedouin style as his father did, he signed the documents, assisted by his lawyer. He then spoke verses from the Koran and then concluded with the phrase “God bless you”, addressed to the staff of the High Electoral Commission (HNEC).
ELECTORAL COMMISSION PHOTO VIA AFP
“The candidate Seif al-Islam Muammar Kadhafi submitted the documents of his candidacy to the office of the HNEC in Sebha thus completing all the legal conditions required by the law n ° 1 relating to the election of the head of state”, a HNEC announced in a press release. He also had his voter card issued.
At the end of July, Seif al-Islam had mentioned in an interview with New York Times his possible return to the political scene.
The culmination of a laborious political process sponsored by the UN, the presidential election of December 24 and the legislative elections scheduled for a month later are supposed to turn the page on a decade of chaos since the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed in 2011 during a popular revolt, and put an end to fratricidal struggles.
Uncertainties
Captured in November 2011 by an armed group in Zenten in north-western Libya, he was sentenced to death in 2015 after a speedy trial.
REUTERS ARCHIVE PHOTO
Seif Al-Islam during his trial in May 2014
The group detaining him had nevertheless refused to hand him over to the authorities or to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has been looking for him since 2011 on charges of “crimes against humanity”.
The group released him in 2017 and his tracks were lost.
“Seif al-Islam Gaddafi’s situation at the ICC has not changed. According to the notice published in 2011, he is still wanted, ”Fadi Abdallah, an ICC spokesperson told Libya al-Ahrar.
For the international community, the holding of elections is essential to pacify the country, which has the most abundant oil reserves in Africa.
The presidential election – the first in the country’s history – and the legislative elections nevertheless remain very uncertain against a backdrop of renewed tensions between the rival camps, installed in the West and in the East, as the deadline approaches.
After the confirmed candidacy of Seif al-Islam, many questions remain around those of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya, and of the prime minister, Abdelhamid Dbeibah.
Marshal Haftar suspended his military duties – an essential procedure – three months before the date of the election but has not yet submitted his candidacy.
“Complicate the process”
For Wolfram Lacher, expert on Libya from the German SWP institute, the candidacy of Seif Al-Islam “filed despite the arrest warrants of the ICC […] will only further complicate the electoral process ”.
This is already strongly contested because of the electoral law for the presidential election which does not clearly define the powers of the future president and was not voted by Parliament, but directly ratified by its leader Aguila Saleh, a close friend of the marshal. Haftar.
Tarek Megrisi, analyst at the European Council on International Relations lamented in a tweet that under this controversial electoral law, Libyans will have to “choose a president with unlimited powers and without obligations”.
What is more, their choice will have to be made “between their former aggressor, the man who committed war crimes to take power and a man known for his obscene corruption”, lamented without giving names, Mr. Megrisi.