A total of 721 candidates have so far registered to run in Libya’s 24 December parliamentary elections, the country’s electoral commission said on Tuesday.

Several poll stations in a number of cities in western Libya has been closed to protest Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi’s bid to run for December presidential elections.

The Media Advisor of the Presidency of the House of Representatives (HoR), Fathi Al-Marimi, confirmed that Parliament Speaker, Aqilah Saleh intends to present his candidacy application for the presidential elections in Libya within the next two day at the headquarters of the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) in Benghazi.

Eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar will run in Libya’s presidential elections due next month, he announced in a televised speech on Tuesday.

Libya’s Prime Minister said Monday that he will announce his position on running for the presidential elections at the “appropriate moment.”

Haftar has received assistance from Israel in collaboration with the Egyptian regime, headed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports.

Elders from several cities called for a boycott of presidential elections and protesters shut voting stations in western Libya on Monday after former dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s son registered to run.

Building ties between Libya and Israel will be discussed later, Sama news agency reported Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh saying yesterday on the sidelines of the Paris conference on Libya.

An arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, is still valid, an ICC spokesman said on Sunday.

The Libyan Military Prosecutor has called for the halt of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi’s candidacy for presidential elections, asking the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) to stop Gaddafi and Khalifa Haftar’s electoral registration until they’re interrogated for accusations of crimes filed against them.