Gaddafi’s son rejected as candidate for presidency

LIBYA’S election commission said yesterday that Saif al-islam Gaddafi, the son of the former ruler and a candidate in December’s planned presidential election, was ineligible to run, compounding the turmoil surrounding the vote.

The 49-year-old, who holds a PHD from the London School of Economics, is wanted by the International Criminal Court on two counts of crimes against humanity.

Gaddafi announced his intention to run earlier this month, in his first onscreen appearance outside detention since 2011.

Gaddafi is one of 25 candidates that has been disqualified in an initial decision pending an appeals process that will ultimately be decided by the judiciary. Some 98 Libyans registered as candidates.

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

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 revolution that toppled his father Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. He has denied wrongdoing.

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

Abdulhamid al-dbeibah, interim prime minister, has vowed not to stand as a condition of taking on his present role.