TRIPOLI— A son of former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi has formally announced his candidacy to run for president of the restive North African country.

Saif Al-Islam was the more prominent of Gaddafi’s children and was arrested and jailed after his father was toppled.

The Libya Observer news portal reports that he announced his candidacy at the Sabha High National Elections Center in the country’s southern region.

A photo being circulated on social media shows a turbaned Saif seated behind a desk he is wearing a brown long dress and spotting a salt and pepper beard.

Even though elections have proven elusive in the past years, authorities and international allies believe that elections will be needed to get a semblance of stability to the oil producer.

A Dec 24 date is slated but it is far from certain whether the polls will hold.

Saif is still the subject of an International Criminal Court summons since 2011. Reports indicate that an ICC spokesperson has said they will not comment on Libyan affairs but that the summons remains valid.

In August this year, the Libya Observer news portal, quoted the 49-year-old’s interview with the New York Times saying: “I’ve been away from the Libyan people for ten years. You need to come back slowly, slowly like a striptease.”

He was released earlier this year by eastern forces who have held him since his arrest in 2011, he was tried and jailed in the city of Zintan for the last decade.

After his release, despite not speaking about presidential ambitions, he stated that he believed that his movement could restore the “country’s lost unity.”

The Libya Observer report continued: His campaign pitch is that “politicians have brought you nothing but misery. It is time for a return to the past.

“They raped the country — it’s on its knees… There’s no money, no security… There’s no life here. Go to the gas station — there’s no diesel.”

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK