With the president running for a new term, critics say a credible poll cannot be conducted unless jailed opposition politicians are released.
Tunisian President Kais Saied has said he will seek a new five-year term in elections scheduled for October.
Saied’s announcement came as the opposition argues that fair and credible elections cannot be held unless jailed politicians are released and the media is allowed to do their jobs free from government pressure.
“To continue my fight for national liberation, I am formally announcing my candidacy for the October 6 presidential elections,” Saied, who has ruled by decree since suspending parliament in July 2021, said in a video released by his office on Friday.
The 66-year-old president said he had no choice but to answer the “sacred call of the country” and run for a second term in the southern Tataouine region.
In July, Saied called for the presidential election to be held on October 6th.
Several potential challengers who had announced their candidacy are in prison or facing indictments.
“To everyone preparing to become a sponsor, [candidates] To prevent any corruption.
According to Tunisian media, Lotfi Muraich, leader of the opposition Republican Union party, was sentenced to eight months in prison on bribery charges early on Friday and has been permanently banned from running for president.
Muraich, one of Saied’s most prominent critics, was arrested in July on suspicion of money laundering.
Repression of political opposition
Abir Moussi, leader of the Free Constitutional Party and a leading candidate, has been jailed since last year on charges of endangering public security.
Ms. Mussi’s party claimed she was jailed to exclude her from the presidential election, a charge denied by authorities.
The other candidates, including Safi Said, Nizar Shaari and Abd Elatif Mekki, face charges including fraud and money laundering.
Issam Chebbi, leader of the main opposition National Salvation Front, who was arrested in February 2023 on charges of “conspiracy against the state”, withdrew from the race on Thursday, the party announced.
Prominent opposition leader and former parliament speaker Rached Ghannouchi has been jailed since April 2023 on charges that his Ennahda party accepted foreign donations, charges he and his supporters say are baseless.
Amnesty International said this week that Tunisian authorities had “intensified their crackdown on political opposition”.
Said, a former constitutional law professor, was elected in 2019 as a strong opposition figure who promised to root out corruption.
