Zakharova called discrimination the refusal to admit the son of Muammar Gaddafi to the elections in Libya to allow the son of Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, to participate in the presidential elections. The corresponding comment of the diplomat was posted on the Telegram channel of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“Such discrimination causes some concern, since we have always advocated providing representatives of all Libyan public and political circles with equal opportunities to participate in the electoral process,” Zakharova said.
Moscow believes that “the Libyan people should not be deprived of the right to choose those whom he considers most worthy to occupy top positions in future power structures, “she added.
On November 15, the Libyan Supreme Election Commission rejected the application of Gaddafi's son to participate in the presidential elections. The electoral committee referred to the “undermining of stability” and indicated that they had rejected the candidacy of the dictator's son due to the closure of a number of departments of the commission. The CEC later deleted the message from its Facebook page.
Earlier it became known that the son of the former Libyan leader wanted to lead the country. He submitted the document to the regional election commission in the city of Sebha in southern Libya.
Seif al-Islam Gaddafi was born in 1972. He studied in Switzerland and the UK, where he graduated from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). During his father's reign, he was involved in Libya's relations with Western countries. After the overthrow of his father, he led the resistance for a short time, but at the end of 2011 he was captured and brought to trial. In 2017, he was released thanks to an amnesty proclaimed by the Libyan government.
In 2018, he took part in the presidential elections disrupted due to the onset of the offensive by the troops of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar on the Libyan capital. According to Bloomberg, Seif al-Islam allegedly flew to Moscow on several occasions for financial and diplomatic support. This information was not confirmed in Russia.