Former Libyan Interior Minister Fathi Bachagha officially presented his candidacy for the presidential election slated for December on Thursday. “I, Fathi Bachagha, declare my candidacy for the presidential election”, He declared after the deposit of his candidacy to the office of the High electoral commission (HNEC) in Tripoli.
The candidacy of the former influential Minister of the Interior brings to 15 according to the HNEC the number of candidates officially registered for the election of December 24, including in particular Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader overthrown and killed in 2011, and Khalifa Haftar, the strongman from the east of the country. On Wednesday evening, Libyan Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh, 77, announced his candidacy in a televised speech but has yet to submit his case.
Morning Headlines Newsletter
Former fighter pilot, Fathi Bachagha, 59, had failed in February in his quest to take the head of the interim executive against the current Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah. A key player in the Military Council of Misrata (west), set up during the revolution, Fathi Bachagha became known to the general public during his time at the head of the Ministry of the Interior from 2018 to early 2021. A few days before give up his post as Minister of the Interior, he had escaped an assassination attempt near Tripoli. While a myriad of militias rule over western Libya, he campaigned as minister to reduce their influence, including offering training courses to militiamen who agreed to join the forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. ‘order.
Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the North African country has been plagued by rivalries between the main regions, power struggles and foreign interference. Infrastructure is flat, the economy is in tatters and services are failing. The presidential election, the first for a Libyan head of state by universal suffrage, is said to be the culmination of a laborious political process sponsored by the UN. More than 2.83 million Libyans, out of an estimated seven million inhabitants, have registered to vote.
