TRIPOLI (Reuters) – A Libyan court docket dominated on Thursday that the son of the late chief Muammar Gaddafi might run for president, his lawyer stated, as arguments intensified over the conduct of an election aimed toward ending a decade of turmoil.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s enchantment in opposition to disqualification for the Dec. 24 vote was delayed for days as fighters blocked off the court docket, one among a number of incidents that will foreshadow wider election unrest.
In one other incident on Thursday, the elections fee stated armed males had stormed 5 election centres in western Libya, stealing poll playing cards.
Analysts worry a contested vote, or one with clear violations, might derail a peace course of that this 12 months led to the formation of a unity authorities in an effort to bridge the rift between warring japanese and western factions.
A remaining record of candidates for the election has not but been launched amid a chaotic appeals course of after the election fee initially disqualified 25 of the 98 who registered to run for president.
Gaddafi, who was sentenced to dying by a Tripoli court docket in absentia in 2015 for warcrimes dedicated throughout the failed battle to avoid wasting his father’s 40-year rule from a NATO-backed rebellion, is one among a number of divisive candidates within the race.
He’s a figurehead for Libyans nonetheless loyal to the previous authorities of his father, whose toppling and dying in 2011 heralded a decade of strife. After his lawyer introduced the choice, his supporters celebrated within the streets throughout Sebha, witnesses stated.
Nevertheless, many different Libyans, together with within the armed teams that maintain the steadiness of energy throughout swathes of the nation, view his presence on the poll as unacceptable after the bloody wrestle to oust his father.
The blockade of the Sebha court docket this week by fighters allied to japanese commander Khalifa Haftar indicated the potential chaos that the deliberate election might unleash with armed teams backing or opposing rival candidates.
Haftar, whose Libyan Nationwide Military (LNA) controls a lot of japanese and southern Libya, is himself a candidate for the election. The LNA stated the models allied to it had been defending the court docket somewhat than blocking it.
(Reporting by Reuters Libya newsroom and Hani Amara, writing by Angus McDowall, enhancing by Angus MacSwan)
