Libya’s electoral commission banned, on Wednesday (24), the son of dictator Muammar Gaddafi from running for president of the country. Since the removal of her father, murdered in 2011 during a popular uprising, Libya has been experiencing serious political instability, and the elections scheduled for December 24 will be the result of a process organized by the United Nations to try to end the stalemate.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, 49, is one of nearly 100 names so far nominated as candidates — but by his roots he is prominent on the list. In addition to him, another 24 were barred by the commission.
According to the group, Saif al-Islam is ineligible because he was convicted of a crime in 2015. At the time, a court in Tripoli, the country’s capital, sentenced him to death for war crimes committed during the popular uprising against his father. The dictator’s son has also been wanted by the International Criminal Court since 2011.
Despite his name being one of the most recognizable in Libya and he played an important role in policy-making before the movement that ousted his father’s regime, Saif al-Islam was barely seen for a decade.
Before his last appearance, when he registered for the presidential race on the 14th, he had only been seen in 2015 via a video call at his trial in Tripoli.
At the time, Saif al-Islam was being held by fighters who captured him as he tried to flee the country after the fall of Gaddafi. Despite the court ruling, he never left the mountainous region of Zintan, which is 136 kilometers from Tripoli, but outside the control of authorities in the capital.
Later, his captors allowed him to go free and, in July of this year, the dictator’s son gave an interview to the American newspaper The New York Times saying that he was not ruling out a return to politics.
While Saif al-Islam likely plays with nostalgia for the era before the 2011 uprising that ousted his father from power and started a decade of chaos and violence, analysts say that even if the courts reverse the election commission’s decision, he may not be a favorite.
The era of Muammar Gaddafi is still remembered by many Libyans as a severe autocracy, and Saif al-Islam and other figures from the old regime have been out of power for so long that they may struggle to mobilize support.
Disputes, however, over electoral rules, including the legal basis for voting and who should be eligible to run, threaten to derail the internationally supported peace process.
Two other well-known candidates, former prime minister Ali Zeidan and former speaker of parliament who followed the uprising, Nouri Abusahmain, were also excluded from the election. Decisions can still be appealed, and the final word will be left to the Judiciary.
The electoral commission is still under attack from politicians who believe that some names that were not barred should also be on the list. Among them is that of military man Khalifa Haftar, who is accused of having American nationality, which could exclude him from the election.
He is also accused of war crimes, due to attacks on the country’s capital in 2019, which left dozens dead. Haftar is the commander of the Libyan National Army, one of the groups that lead the country’s conflicts.
The leader, in turn, denies war crimes and says he is not a US citizen.
The current interim prime minister, Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, has promised not to run for president as a condition of taking up his current post. But, according to the Al Jazeera network, the prime minister would have changed his mind and last Sunday registered his name in the election.
The act, however, goes against the country’s laws, which say he would have to suspend his government duties for at least three months before the voting date, which he has not done.
If the court considers al-Dbeibah’s candidacy valid, he should join the list of favorites for the position, which also includes Haftar and former interior minister Fathi Bashagha.
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