TRIPOLI - Libya's election commission said on Wednesday that Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of the former ruler and a major candidate in December's planned presidential election, was ineligible to run, compounding the turmoil surrounding the vote.

Gadhafi was one of 25 candidates that it disqualified in an initial decision pending an appeals process that will ultimately be decided by the judiciary. Some 98 Libyans registered as candidates.

Disputes over the election rules, including the legal basis of the vote and who should be eligible to stand, threaten to derail an internationally backed peace process aimed at ending a decade of factional chaos.

The military prosecutor in Tripoli had urged the commission to rule out Gadhafi after his conviction in absentia on war crimes charges in 2015 for his part in fighting the revolution that toppled his father Muammar Gadhafi in 2011. He has denied wrongdoing.

Some of the other candidates initially approved by the commission had also been accused of possible violations by political rivals.

Interim prime minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah vowed not to run for president as a condition of taking on his present role, and did not stand down from it three months before the vote as is required by a contested election law.

Another prominent candidate, eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, is said to have U.S. nationality, which could also rule him out. Many people in western Libya also accuse him of war crimes committed during his 2019-20 assault on Tripoli.

Haftar denies warcrimes and says he is not a U.S. citizen. Dbeibah has described as 'flawed' the election rules issued in September by the parliament speaker Aguila Saleh, who is also a candidate.

U.N. Libya envoy Jan Kubis, who is stepping down from his post, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that Libya's judiciary would make the final decision on the rules and on whether candidates were eligible.

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  Reuters

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