The Libyan High National Elections Commission (HNEC) closed Monday candidacy registration for presidential elections after over 80 candidates had submitted their documents for the December 24 vote. The HNEC is expected to publish the preliminary list of candidates in 48 hours.

On Monday, 14 new candidates submitted their paperwork at HNEC offices, the last of whom was Sulaiman Al-Buwaidi, at an HNEC Tripoli office.

The HNEC postponed a press conference that was supposed to be held Monday evening after the closure of the presidential candidacy process, citing the bulky number of candidates on the last day of registration, which in turn needed more time for sorting out before being presented to the public at the conference.

It's worth mentioning that the current Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah has submitted his candidacy as well for presidential elections despite a lot of reservations about this move by several parties.