Libya to open registration for presidential and parliamentary elections

Candidates for Libya’s UN-backed presidential and parliamentary elections will open on Monday, said Libya’s High National Elections Commission.

“The commission will accept applications for running in the polls as of Monday,” Emad al-Sayeh, head of the High National Election Commission, told a press conference in Tripoli.

Libya’s presidential and parliamentary elections are set to take place on Dec. 24 under an agreement reached by Libyan political rivals in Tunisia on Nov. 15, 2020.

Al-Sayeh said the presidential elections will be held on two rounds; as applications for running in the presidential polls will be accepted until Nov. 22 and Dec. 7 for parliamentary polls.

Wrangling over the legal basis for the election, as well as its date and qualifications for candidates, threatened to derail the UN peace process that is considered as Libya’s best hope in years to end chronic instability and violence.

The UN peace process also led to the installation of an interim unity government and installed Abdul Hamid Dbeibah as prime minister.

He and others in the government swore not to run in any December election.

Potential candidates include Khalifa Haftar, the commander of renegade eastern-based forces in the civil war; Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former longtime leader; parliament head Aguila Saleh; and former interior minister, Fathi Bashagha.

Libyans hope that the upcoming elections will contribute to ending an armed conflict that has plagued the oil-rich country since toppling El Gaddafi in 2011.