The Speaker of the Libyan Parliament, Aguila Saleh, considered to be close to the strong man of the East Khalifa Haftar, on Saturday submitted his candidacy for the presidential election at the headquarters of the electoral commission in Benghazi.
"
I came to the HNEC office in Benghazi (east) to submit the documents necessary for my candidacy,
" said Aguila Saleh, 77, calling on her compatriots to take part in the ballot, according to images transmitted live by the channel. television station dedicated to the elections, Libya Tantakheb.
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In all, 23 presidential candidates have already submitted their file, in addition to Aguila Saleh, the High Electoral Commission (HNEC) said on its website.
Scheduled for December 24, this election, the first for a head of state by universal suffrage in Libya, is the culmination of a laborious political process sponsored by the UN.
More than 2.83 million Libyans out of an estimated seven million people have registered to vote.
For the international community, the holding of elections - the presidential election followed a month later by legislative elections - is essential to pacify the country, which has the most abundant oil reserves in Africa.
But in a still fragile security context and persistent political differences, including on the electoral calendar, the holding of the polls remains uncertain.
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Aguila Saleh unilaterally ratified in September the text surrounding the presidential election, which seems tailor-made for Marshal Haftar, a decision contested by the authorities based in Tripoli (west) which caused a sharp rise in tensions.
Friday, demonstrators in Tripoli and Misrata (west) denounced this law and the participation in the presidential election of “
war criminals
”, alluding to Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, younger son of the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and of Marshal Haftar.