Former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, Libya’s sole Presidential Candidate, Rallyes Support Former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha Runs for President

Former interior minister Fathi Bashagha, the only Libyan to publicly declare his candidacy for president in the December 24 elections, has emphasized “security and economic reform” in his pitch.

The elections will bring an end to a difficult year for the 59-year-old.

In February, as part of UN-led peace efforts, he was narrowly defeated in elections for the post of interim prime minister.

That same month, he survived what aides described as a “well-planned” assassination attempt, in which bullets were fired at his convoy on a highway near Tripoli.

But Bashagha, a Libyan political heavyweight and champion of efforts to integrate the North African country’s numerous militias into the state, is not backing down.

He wants to get Libya back on its feet by revitalizing the country’s battered economy, he told AFP in an interview in his garden in Tripoli’s outskirts.

“Security and economic reform go hand in hand,” he said.

“An urgent plan for economic reform and strengthening the dinar against the dollar is required, and the private sector must be encouraged.”