The Libyan High National Election Commission (HNEC) has said that the son of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, was deemed ineligible to run in the country’s planned presidential election in December.
In an initial decision pending an appeals process that will ultimately be decided by the judiciary, Gaddafi was one of 25 candidates from 98 registered candidates disqualified by the commission on Wednesday.
The military prosecutor in Tripoli had urged the HNEC to rule out Gaddafi after his conviction in absentia on war crimes charges in 2015 for his part in fighting the uprising that removed his late father in 2011.
Ali Zeidan and Nouri Abusahmain, two other well-known candidates, were also excluded in the same decision.
Including the legal basis of the December 24 vote and who should be eligible to stand, disputes over the election rules have threatened to derail an internationally-backed peace process aimed at ending a decade of chaos.
Some of the other candidates initially approved by the HNEC had also been accused of possible violations by political rivals.
