Despite His Removal, Will Gaddafi Succeed in Overcoming the Decision?

Despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, Saif al-Islam, the former heir apparent of the deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is dreaming to hold his father’s chair of presidency and rule Libya.

None of that stopped Saif al-Islam Gaddafi from trying to become Libya's next president and filing his candidacy papers on Sunday 21 November 2021, for December’s planned polls in Libya.

However, according to The Guardian, he was ruled ineligible amid disputes over rules and threats to the peace process. Because he was disqualified from standing in the Libyan election, as Libya’s National Electoral Commission rejected, on Wednesday, 24 November 2021, his presidential candidacy.

In response to this decision, the former posted a capture on his Facebook account, in which he reassured his public that something good may happen, according to Middle East in 24 website.

 

Deemed Ineligible

Spectacled with a white beard, and with a traditional brown robe reminiscent of his father’s clothes, Saif al-Islam registered his nomination in the southern city of Sebha hoping to hold the presidency chair. However, the dream was destroyed by the decision of Libya’s election commission, on Wednesday, 24 November 2021, claiming that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was ineligible to run the December 24 election.

Actually, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was one of 25 candidates that the commission “disqualified in an initial decision pending an appeals process that will ultimately be decided by the judiciary,” according to the Guardian. Ninety-eight Libyans are registered as candidates to run for the December planned election in Libya.

Disputes over the election rules, including who is eligible to stand and how is not and some legal basis to vote, menace to ruin an internationally backed peace process that aimed to end a decade of bigoted anarchy.

Indeed, before and after Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was ruled ineligible, there were disputes over rules and threats to peace process amid fears of taking steps back to tyranny and chaos.

After signing papers of his nomination for the election, the military prosecutor in Tripoli had urged the commission to rule out Gaddafi after his condemnation on war crimes charges in 2015 in oppressing and fighting the revolution that toppled his father, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011. But Muammar’s son has denied all these crimes.

In addition to Saif al-Islam, some of the other candidates approved by the commission in the beginning, have also been accused of possible violations of the election rules.

Another strong candidate, eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar, is said to have US nationality, which could also rule him out from the election, but this was not the only reason actually, many people in western Libya also accuse him of war crimes committed during his 2019 and 2020 assault on Tripoli. Like Saif al-Islam, Haftar denied the war crimes and said he is not a US citizen.

Dbeibeh has described the rules of the Libyan election issued in September by the Parliament Speaker, Aguila Saleh, as “flawed.”

 

‘Not to Give Up’

In response to his alienation from the election, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi published a capture of a written letter on his Facebook page, in which he called on Libyans to continue receiving electoral cards.

In his post below, the ruled-out candidate said: “You don’t know, perhaps God will make something good happen after that, Brothers, and sisters, do not grieve, God is here…We must all continue the process of receiving electoral cards with determination.”

The events have accelerated; according to Reuters, Gunmen have attacked a Libyan court to stop an appeal by Saif al-Islam against the rejection of his presidential candidacy and that paved the way to draw an alarm from the United Nations.

According to the same source, the Libyan government called the perpetrators a “group of outlaws” who launched an “odious” attack, which caused the court in the southern town of Sebha to shut today November 26, 2021.

Through a video, the lawyer of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi Khaled al-Zaidi, said that “these armed men had prevented him from entering to lodge an appeal on Thursday, November 25, 2021, against his client’s disqualification from next month’s presidential election.”

In the same video, the lawyer said that “the armed force attacked the court and expelled the employees and judges by threatening them with arms.”

In other words, the interference by fighters from any section will further erode confidence in a vote that many Libyans want and may drive the country to new conflicts.

 

'Foolish’

In his interview with Al-Estiklal, Libyan Political analyst Yassin Khattab described Saif al-Islam’s hopes to succeed in returning to presidential candidates’ list as foolish. Khattab said that “In these circumstances in which Libya needs international cooperation to get out of its difficult situation, it would be foolish to choose a president wanted by the International Criminal Court.”

The political analyst believes that it is impossible to ruin the Libyan reform process and accept Saif al-Islam to lead the Libyan future. He added that “most of the active forces in Libya will certainly not allow Gaddafi’s son to rule Libya, and therefore, Saif’s chances of overcoming the decision of rejecting him are very weak.”

“I think that what Seif and his supporters want to do in these elections is to obtain as many votes as possible to confirm and support their presence as an important number on the map of political forces in Libya,” he concluded.