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 police arrest presidential candidate as pre-election tension rises

Close

Embed Video

Tunisia police arrest presidential candidate as pre-election tension rises

2nd September 2024

By: Reuters

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

Tunisian police arrested presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel on Monday, a member of his campaign told Reuters, amid growing fears among rights groups and the opposition that prominent rivals to President Kais Saied will be excluded‮ ‬from the race.

The electoral commission is preparing to announce on Monday the final list of accepted candidates for the presidential elections scheduled for October 6.

Advertisement

Mahdi Abdel Jawad said police had arrested Zammel at his home at about 3:00 am on suspicion of falsifying‮ ‬popular endorsements and added that "the matter has become absurd and aims to exclude him from the election".

The electoral commission and the interior ministry did not immediately comment.

Advertisement

Last week, the Administrative Court, the highest judicial body that adjudicates electoral disputes, reinstated three prominent candidates, Mondher Znaidi, AbdelLatif Mekki and Imed Daimi, to the election race after the electoral commission had rejected their candidacy filing.

They joined accepted candidates Ayachi Zammel, Zouhair Maghzaoui and Saied, the current president.

However, electoral commission head Farouk Bouasker said the commission would study the Administrative Court’s decision and other judicial decisions against candidates before issuing the final list.

Bouasker's position sparked widespread anger among rights groups and politicians, who expressed their fear that the statement was a clear signal pointing to the exclusion of the three candidates from the race.

They said that the commission was no longer independent and its sole goal had become to ensure an easy victory for Saied. The commission denies these accusations and says it is neutral.

Tunisian constitutional law professors said the election commission must implement the administrative court’s decision as is, or the elections will completely lose credibility.

Political parties and human rights groups called in a join statement for a protest on Monday near the election headquarters to demand implementation of the court’s decision to reinstate the candidates and stop "arbitrary restrictions" and intimidation.

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