At the Paris International Conference on Libya on November 12, the United States, France, Germany and Italy insisted on holding elections in the troubled country and threatened to impose sanctions on those inside or outside Libya who sought to undermine them.
At the age of 49, Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi’s son, gave up his lavish and luxurious life and appeared in a Bedouin beret, turban and brown scarf, referring directly to his father’s costume ethics to run for president, which are supposed to take place on December 24. This happened in the city of Samba, an oasis in the heart of the desert, where the Gaddafi dynasty has a strong influence on local tribes.
Condemning both the Tripoli government and the Benghazi parallel government that led the country to civil war, Saif al-Islam, who aspires to rally those frustrated by the “Arab Spring” that erupted in Libya and ended the days of their country had state, security and wealth under the rule of his father, Gaddafi.
Gaddafi’s son was the first to run, prompting a domino effect. On Monday (November 15th), caretaker Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dibaiba, representing the Tripoli camp, hinted that he would run in the election. The next day, the strongman of Benghazi, Khalifa Haftar, announced his candidacy. However, the political scene is already on fire.
In Misrata, the country’s third most populous city and a stronghold of the anti-Gaddafi uprising, the city council decided to boycott both the presidential and parliamentary elections, denouncing parliament for allowing criminals Gaddafi and Hafta to run. Posters with the faces of the two men and the inscription “war criminals” appeared in Tripoli.
Six weeks before the announced date, the opposition parties have not even agreed on the constitutional basis for holding the elections (whether Libya will follow the presidential or prime ministerial system), or the electoral legislation (the way voted by the Tobruk Parliament prohibits in Dibeba to run). With today’s data, only the joke sounds the possibility that Haftar or Gaddafi will manage to hold rallies in Tripoli and Dibeba in Benghazi.
The Paris conference did not solve the big problem of withdrawing foreign troops and mercenaries, mainly from Russia and Turkey, who support rival camps. According to Angela Merkel, Russia appeared receptive to the withdrawal of its troops if Turkey did the same, but the Turkish delegation expressed its reservations with an asterisk. Based on the above, it is very likely that the run-up to the elections, instead of being an important step towards national unity, will provoke a new page in the Libyan civil war.
