Libya’s interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah to run for president

Libya’s interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah on Sunday filed his candidacy to run for president in next month’s elections despite being barred from elections under the current rules.

Abdul Hamid Dbeibah is meant to lead the country until a winner is declared following presidential elections on Dec. 24.

He is the latest high-profile candidate to emerge in the race. He submitted his application a day before the Nov. 22 deadline.

"Today, I present my candidacy papers, to serve you and not for anything else, for the upcoming presidential elections, and we ask God to help us all for the good of the country and the good of this great nation and this great people." Hamid Dbeibah stated.

The powerful businessman from the western city of Misrata is barred from running under Libya’s current election laws.

Hamid Dbeibah had promised he would not seek office in the vote as a condition to taking on his caretaker role earlier this year.

In order to be eligible, he was supposed to have suspended himself from governmental duties at least three months before the polling date, which he failed to do.

Dbeibah told journalists he felt responsible for the continued reconstruction of the country, torn apart by years of civil war.

It is not clear if the country's Electoral Commission will accept his candidacy.

Earlier this month, several controversial candidates popped up, including Seif al-Islam, the son and one-time heir apparent of Gadhafi.

Military commander Khalifa Hifter, who besieged the capital of Tripoli for nearly a year in 2019 is also on the list.

Dbeibah was appointed during UN-led talks in April to lead the executive branch of the interim government that also included a three-member Presidential Council chaired by Mohammad Younes Menfi, a Libyan diplomat from the country’s east.

Before he took the position, he signed a pledge that he would not seek office in the next elections.