https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / African News RSS ← Back
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Article Enquiry

Tunisia court allows prominent candidate Znaidi to run in presidential race

Close

Embed Video

Tunisia court allows prominent candidate Znaidi to run in presidential race

29th August 2024

By: Reuters

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

The Tunisian Administrative Court upheld on Thursday an appeal by prominent candidate Mondher Znaidi, thereby allowing him to return to the presidential race expected on October 6, a judicial official told Reuters, in the second such ruling this week.

The decision will restore momentum to the election race and could toughen the contest for current President Kais Saied, who is seeking a second term.

Advertisement

The Administrative Court also returned Abdellatif Mekki to the race on Tuesday after the electoral commission had rejected his candidacy filing.

Judicial official Faycel Bouguera told Reuters that the court’s decision on Thursday was final and could not be challenged on appeal.

Advertisement

Znaidi, a former minister who worked with late President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ousted by mass protests in 2011, lives in Paris and says "he wants to rebuild Tunisia, unite all Tunisians and end years of division that Saied sowed".

Znaidi is counting on those angry with Saied’s rule in the past five years and the rule of Islamists after the revolution to win votes in the October election. He also hopes to attract the votes of supporters of the former regime, which is widely seen as a large electoral reservoir.

The court’s decision adds Znaidi to a list of accepted candidates that also includes Saied and politicians Ayachi Zammel, Zouhair Maghzaoui and Abdelattif Mekki.

Tunisian opposition parties, politicians and human rights groups have accused the authorities of using "arbitrary restrictions" and intimidation to help ensure the re-election of Saied.

They say the electoral commission is not neutral and is seeking to eliminate all serious competitors to pave the way for Saied's victory. The commission denies the accusations.

Saied, who dissolved parliament and seized control of all powers in 2021 in a move described by the opposition as a coup, said last year "he would not hand over the country to non-patriots".

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options

Email Registration Success

Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to one or more of Creamer Media’s email newsletters. You should start receiving the email newsletters in due course.

Our email newsletters may land in your junk or spam folder. To prevent this, kindly add newsletters@creamermedia.co.za to your address book or safe sender list. If you experience any issues with the receipt of our email newsletters, please email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za