Libyan polls: Slain President Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam runs for president

For the first time since Libya’s President Muammar Gaddafi was lynched to death, his son Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi appeared in an electoral commission to register as a presidential candidate for a December vote.

The vote is planned to help end the years of chaos since his father was toppled. Donning traditional brown robe and turban, and wearing grey beard Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, 49, appeared in an electoral commission video in signing documents at the election center in the southern town of Sebha.

Gaddafi is one of the most prominent figures expected to run for president, a list that also includes eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar, Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, and parliament speaker Aguila Saleh.

However, while his name is one of the best known in Libya, and though he once played a major role in shaping policy before the 2011 Nato-backed uprising that destroyed his family’s regime, he has barely been seen for a decade.

His formal entry into an election whose rules are still contested by Libya’s squabbling factions may also cast new questions over a contest that features candidates viewed in some regions as unacceptable.

Despite the public backing of most Libyan factions and foreign powers for elections on Dec 24, the vote remains in doubt as rival entities bicker over the rules and schedule.

While Gaddafi is likely to play on nostalgia for the era before the 2011 Nato-backed uprising that swept his father from power and ushered in a decade of chaos and violence, analysts say he may not prove to be a front runner.

Saif al-Islam and other former regime figures have been out of power for so long they may find it difficult to mobilize as much support as major rivals.

Muammar al-Gaddafi was captured outside his hometown of Sirte by opposition fighters in Oct 2011 and summarily shot. Saif al-Islam was seized days later by fighters from the mountainous Zintan region as he tried to flee Libya for Niger.

Just over a decade later, Saif al-Islam is now something of a cipher for Libyans. The Zintan fighters kept him for years out of public sight and his views on the crisis are not known.

He gave an interview to the New York Times earlier this year but has not yet made any public appearance speaking directly to Libyans.

Complicating his presidential ambitions, Gaddafi was tried in absentia in 2015 by a Tripoli court at which he appeared via videolink from Zintan, and which sentenced him to death for war crimes including killing protesters during the 2011 revolt.

He would likely face arrest or other dangers if he appeared publicly in the capital Tripoli. He is also wanted by the International Criminal Court.

Educated at the London School of Economics and a fluent English speaker, Saif al-Islam was once seen by many governments as the acceptable, Western-friendly face of Libya, and a possible heir apparent.

But when a rebellion broke out in 2011 against Muammar Gaddafi’s long rule, Saif al-Islam immediately chose family and clan loyalties over his many friendships in the West.