By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 24 November 2021:
Libya’s High National Elections Commission (HNEC) today disqualified 25 applicants from standing in the country’s 24 December presidential elections – including Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi.
Saif was disqualified by virtue of articles 10/7, for having a previous final conviction of a crime, and 17/5 for failing to obtain a certificate for no previous judgements.
Most of the 25 who were disqualified either had previous convictions or failed to obtain the backing of 5,000 unique supporters registered in the electoral register (article 11).
Other prominent names were former prime minister Ali Zeidan for having more than one nationality (10/2) and not having 5,000 unique backers (article 11).
Former head of the General National Congress (GNC) Nuri Abusahmain was also disqualified for article 10/7.
Qaddafi’ chief of staff Bashir Saleh was also disqualified through article 10/7.
This is the first batch of applicants to be process. There is likely to be others.