The Sebha Court had earlier ruled to return the son of the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, to the presidential elections, after the country’s High Electoral Commission excluded him from the list of candidates.
Immediately after the Sebha court issued a decision that reinstated Saif al-Islam, the High Elections Commission said that it would appeal against the appeal.
The Electoral Commission attributed the exclusion of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi from the presidential race, due to “violating two provisions of the law on the election of the head of state.”
Gaddafi’s son had addressed his supporters in a message after his exclusion, saying, “My brothers and sisters, do not humiliate and do not grieve, God is with us. We must all continue the process of receiving the electoral cards and vigorously.”
The commission said that Saif al-Islam was excluded from the electoral race because of his violation of two articles of the law on the election of the head of state, noting that “Article 10, Clause 7, and Article 17, Clause 5 did not apply.”
Paragraph 7 of Article 10 of the Presidential Election Law stipulates that he “shall not have been finally convicted of a felony or a crime against honor or trust.”
As for the fifth item of Article 17, the applicant is invited to submit a “certificate of absence of precedents”.
Libya is scheduled to witness its first electoral entitlement on December 24. The people pin their hopes on the existence of an elected president and the completion of building state institutions, which have suffered over the past years from armed conflict and rupture between political forces.
Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi is wanted by the International Criminal Court for “crimes against humanity”. In addition, a court in Tripoli had sentenced him to death in absentia in 2015, for committing war crimes during the 2011 protests.
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