10/8/2024–|Last update: 10/8/202411:14 PM (Makkah Time)
Tunisia's Independent High Authority for Elections announced on Saturday the initial acceptance of three candidates, including President Kais Saied, who is seeking a second term.
The head of the authority, Farouk Bouasker, said in a press conference that “after a careful study of the demands,” 3 candidates out of 17 applications were accepted, namely Tunisian President Kais Saied, Secretary-General of the People's Movement Party, Zuhair Al-Maghzawi, and political activist Al-Ayachi Zemmal.
Bouaskar added that the reason for rejecting the rest of the files was either the lack of endorsement signatures or their failure to respect the condition of distribution according to the regions, stressing that “no application was rejected because of the criminal record card”, the failure to deliver it to the candidates caused great controversy.
The electoral law allows excluded candidates to appeal to the courts before the final list is announced in early September.
Experts believe that the road to the presidential elections is full of obstacles for potential competitors to the president who was democratically elected in 2019 and who later seized power three years ago and is seeking a second term.
Experts point out that the criteria for accepting nominations are strict, requiring endorsements from 10 parliamentarians, 40 elected local officials, or 10,000 voters, with the need to secure at least 500 endorsements in each electoral district, which is difficult to achieve.
The Commission also required that the candidate obtain a criminal record card, or what is known locally as “Card No. 3,” which is a document proving the person’s criminal record and is granted by the Ministry of Interior. Many candidates complained about not being able to obtain it.
prison and county
Last week, four women from the campaign of rapper Karim Gharbi, also known as “Kadorim”, who is running for president, were sentenced to between two and four years in prison on charges of receiving financial endorsements, and three members of Chaari's campaign were arrested on the same charge, which he categorically denied.
The opposition boycotted all the elections supervised by Saied since he announced exceptional measures on July 25, 2021, which caused a political crisis and severe polarization in the country.
These measures included dissolving the Judicial and Representatives Councils, issuing legislation by presidential decree, approving a new constitution through a popular referendum, and holding early legislative elections.
Tunisian forces consider these measures a “coup against the revolution's constitution (the 2014 constitution) and a consecration of absolute individual rule,” while other forces supporting Saied see them as a “correction of the course of the 2011 revolution,” which overthrew then-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.