A total of 98 candidates have submitted applications for the first direct presidential election in Libya as the application ended on Tuesday.
Emad Al-Sayeh, Chairman of the High National Elections Commission, on Tuesday told a press conference in Tripoli that 98 people have submitted applications for presidential candidacy, and a primary list of candidates will be published in two days.
Most of the political and military figures, as well as a large number of activists, academics, and artists, are running for president.
The most notable presidential candidates include Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi, Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the eastern-based army, Aguila Saleh, the speaker of the parliament, and Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, the incumbent prime minister.
The polls come as the UN seeks to end a decade of violence that has rocked the oil-rich nation since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed Kadhafi in 2011.
The final candidates list will be published within 12 days, once verifications and appeals are completed, said Sayeh, a day after the deadline for submitting applications.
The commission “will pass on the papers to the prosecutor general, the department of passports and nationality and to the General Intelligence” to ensure candidates comply with the electoral law.
Registration for Libya’s first-ever direct presidential poll on December 24 took place in three commission offices, in Tripoli in the west, Benghazi in the east and Sebha in the south.
More than 2.8 million of Libya’s seven million people are registered to vote.
