Enlarge image
View of the Libyan port city of Benghazi
Photo: ABDULLAH DOMA / AFP
At the electoral authority in Libya, more than 90 people had registered for presidential candidacy by the application deadline on Monday.
According to Libyan media reports, there are only two women among the applicants: the social scientist Hunayda al-Mahdi and the founder of the National Movement Party, Laila Ben Chalifa.
The election commission wants to announce the full number of applicants this Tuesday.
The presidential election in Libya is scheduled for December 24th.
It is the first direct election of the head of state in the North African country.
Among the most prominent applicants are Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the long-term ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi, who was overthrown in 2011, the powerful General Khalifa Haftar and Parliament President Aguila Saleh.
Former Interior Minister Fathi Baschagha and the head of the interim government in Tripoli, Abdelhamid Dbeibah, have also submitted their candidacies.
Since the fall of Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been shaped by violent conflicts and power struggles.
Foreign troops and mercenary groups, for example from Russia and Turkey, are also involved in local fighting.
A ceasefire that has been in place in the country for over a year is considered fragile.
The planned elections are part of a UN-supervised democratization process in the country.
Originally, both the presidential and parliamentary elections were scheduled for December 24th.
However, the general election was postponed for a month amid power struggles between the country's influential political groups.
atb / AFP
