Armed Men Attack Libya's Appeals Court Set To Examine Seif Gadhafi's Disqualification From December 24 Polls

 Armed men have led an attack on a Libya appeals court as it was set to re-examine an earlier decision that disqualified the son of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi from running for president.

On Thursday, armed men surrounded the court in the southern town of Sabha and prevented judges from convening to look into Seif al-Islam Gadhafi’s appeal. Earlier, the country’s electoral body had deemed Seif al-Islam ineligible to take part in the presidential race set for next month, citing his previous convictions.

“Attacks against judicial or election facilities or judicial or elections personnel are not only criminal acts, punishable under Libyan law, but (they) also undermine Libyans’ right to participate in the political process,” the United Nations Mission in Libya tweeted.

Libya is set to hold the first round of presidential elections on Dec. 24, after years of U.N.-led attempts to usher in a more democratic future and end the country’s civil war. However, the upcoming vote faces many challenges including unresolved issues over laws governing the elections, and occasional infighting among armed groups. Other obstacles include the deep rift that remains between the country’s east and west and the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and troops.

The country is currently governed by an interim government that was elected by Libyan delegates after U.N.-led talks in Geneva in February.

Libya’s interim Interior Minister Khaled Mazen vowed on Thursday to hunt down and prosecute the assailants. He insisted that the transitional government is keen on securing the electoral process in order to encourage all Libyans to go to the vote, according to Libya’s state-owned news agency.

On Wednesday, High National Elections Committee decided to exclude Seif al-Islam from the race citing his criminal record. Seif al-Islam had been sentenced to death by a Tripoli court in 2015 for using violence against protesters in a 2011 uprising against his father, but that ruling has since been called into question by Libya’s rival authorities. He is also wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity related to the uprising.

Libya electoral commission says Saif Gaddafi ineligible to run

 Libya’s electoral commission has said Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi, was ineligible to run in the country’s planned presidential election in December.

Gaddafi was one of 25 candidates disqualified by the commission on Wednesday, in an initial decision pending an appeals process that will ultimately be decided by the judiciary. Some 98 Libyans had registered as candidates.

The military prosecutor in Tripoli had urged the commission to rule out Gaddafi after his conviction in absentia on war crimes charges in 2015 for his part in fighting the uprising that removed his late father in 2011.

Gaddafi at the time appeared via video link from Zintan where he was being held by fighters who captured him as he tried to escape Libya after his father’s overthrow. He denied wrongdoing.

Two other well-known candidates, Ali Zeidan and Nouri Abusahmain, were also excluded.

Disputes over the election rules, including the legal basis of the December 24 vote and who should be eligible to stand, threaten to derail an internationally backed peace process aimed at ending a decade of chaos.

Some of the other candidates initially approved by the commission had also been accused of possible violations by political rivals.

Interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah promised not to run for president as a condition of taking on his present role, and did not stand down from it three months before the vote as is required by a contested election law.

Another prominent candidate, eastern-based renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, is said to have United States nationality, which could also rule him out. Many people in western Libya also accuse him of war crimes committed during his 2019-20 assault on Tripoli.

Haftar denies war crimes and says he is not a US citizen. Dbeibah has described as “flawed” the election rules issued in September by the parliamentary speaker Aguila Saleh, who is also a candidate.

Source: Al Jazeera

Interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah to run for Libyan presidency

 Libya’s interim prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah has filed an application to run for president in the country’s elections next month despite being barred and previously pledging not to.

Dbeibah is meant to head Libya until a winner is announced following the presidential election on December 24. He submitted his application one day before the November 22 deadline.

The 63-year-old businessman from Misrata promised he would not run in the elections as a condition to taking on his caretaker role earlier this year. For him to be eligible, Dbeibah also would have needed to have suspended himself from governmental duties at least three months before the polling date, which he did not do.

“I present my candidacy papers, to serve you and not for anything else, for the upcoming presidential elections, and we ask God to help us all for the good of the country and the good of this great nation and this great people,” he said during a news conference after submitting his request to the electoral commission.

Parliamentary and presidential elections were demanded by a UN political forum last year as part of a roadmap to end Libya’s civil war, a process that also led to the formation of Dbeibah’s interim unity government.

Dbeibah’s appointment to the premiership 9 months ago was confirmed despite allegations of corruption at meetings of the UN-picked 75-member political dialogue forum that appointed him. The interim leader denied the allegations.

His government was meant to replace the rival administrations based in east and west that had ruled Libya for years.

The electoral commission and Libyan courts are likely to rule on the eligibility of candidates in the coming weeks.

Other candidates set to run in the elections include Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi; Haftar, who commands the Libyan National Army (LNA), which waged war on factions in the west after the country split in 2014; and Speaker of Parliament Aguila Saleh, who has led Libya’s House of Representatives since 2014.

Libya’s Khalifa Haftar announces he will run for December presidential elections

 Eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar has announced that he will run in Libya’s presidential elections due next month, he announced in a televised speech.

“Elections are the only way out of the severe crisis that our country has plunged into,” said Haftar, who was expected to formally register later on Tuesday at the election centre in Benghazi.

Haftar, commander of a force called the Libyan National Army (LNA), waged war on factions in the west after the country split in 2014, including a 14-month offensive to capture Tripoli which was repelled by the internationally recognised government.

Backed by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, Haftar, a former CIA asset, is a controversial figure, despised by many in western Libya for last year’s devastating Tripoli offensive. He has also been accused of seeking to establish a military dictatorship in the country.

The announcement of his candidacy comes two days after Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi, registered as a presidential candidate.

On September 22, Haftar provisionally retired from his role as head of the LNA in line with electoral law to allow him to run for president.

Following the announcement, Haftar is expected to head to the electoral authority to formalise his candidacy.

The election is meant as a milestone in the political process to knit Libya back together after a decade of chaos that spiralled out of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi.

However, with no clear agreement on the legal basis for the election, major factions may reject the vote.

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.

Source: Al Jazeera

Wanted Gaddafi's Son Announce Candidacy For Libya's Presidential Elections In December

The son of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has announced his candidacy for the country's presidential elections next month.

Seif al-Islam submitted his candidacy papers in the southern town of Sabha, 650km (400 miles) south of the capital of Tripoli, the High National Elections Commission said in a statement.

Seif al-Islam is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity related to the 2011 uprising that saw his father toppled after more than 40 years in power.

Muammar Gaddafi was later killed amid the ensuing civil war, and his son captured by fighters.

Seif al-Islam, who was seen as the reformist face of Gaddafi's regime before the uprising, was released in June 2017 after more than five years of detention.

He has appeared for the first time in public in five years in a video shared by an election official following the announcement of his candidacy bid.

Wearing a traditional Libyan robe, turban and spectacles, the 49-year-old spoke to the camera and said that God will decide the right path for the country's future.

Political parties and the UN have failed to unite the country since the 2011 violence left Libya split between rival governments - one based in the capital, Tripoli, and the other in the eastern part of the country.

Seif al-Islam is also a divisive figure as he is wanted by the International Criminal Court over crimes allegedly committed in the first weeks of the uprising.

ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah declined to comment on Seif al-Islam's candidacy, saying the court "does not comment on political issues".

Gaddafi's son, who has deep-rooted links to tribes across Libya, is the first major presidential hopeful to submit his candidacy to run for the country's highest post.

Also widely expected to announce their bids are powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter, parliament speaker Agila Saleh and former interior minister Fathi Bashaga.

Abdel-Rahman el-Swahili, a lawmaker from Misrata, voiced his rejection of Seif al-Islam's candidacy, saying that Gaddafi's son should be prosecuted not running for president.

"Those who believe in the possibility of Libya's returning to the era of dictatorship after all these sacrifices, are delusional," he wrote on Facebook.

The election agency began the registration process for presidential and parliamentary hopefuls last week.

Seif al-Islam's candidacy came after an international conference in Paris on Friday expressed support for holding "free, fair, inclusive and credible presidential and parliamentary elections" on 24 December.

Source: Sky News