More than 90 people, including only two women, have applied to the Libyan Electoral Authority to run in the December presidential election, as it became known tonight, after the deadline for submitting candidacies expired.
The Supreme National Electoral Commission (HNEC) will have to announce the final number of candidates tomorrow and make public the names of those who were not rejected, after examining their dossier and any objections.
According to Libyan media, more than 90 dossiers have been filed since November 8. Candidates include Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, General Khalifa Haftar, who de facto controls eastern Libya, powerful former Interior Minister Fati Bashaga and caretaker Prime Minister Abdel Abba.
The two women who have applied are Laila Ben Khalifa, 46, president and founder of the National Movement party, and Hunaida Al Mahdi, a social science researcher.
For the presidential election, which is scheduled for December 24, the candidacies were submitted only in three offices of the Supreme Electoral Commission: in Tripoli, Benghazi and Sebha.
More than 2.83 million Libyans, out of the country’s approximately 7 million people, have registered to vote.
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