Tunisia’s Electoral Authority Approves Just 2 Candidates to Challenge Saied. 1 Has Been Detained

FILE - Tunisia’s President Kais Saied casts his ballot during legislative elections in Tunis, Dec. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Slim Abid, File)

By MASSINISSA BENLAKEHAL

5:11 PM EDT, September 2, 2024

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s electoral authority on Monday definitively approved just two candidates to challenge President Kais Saied in elections next month in the struggling North African country — and one of them was promptly arrested.

Businessman candidate Ayachi Zammel was taken into custody Monday in an investigation into allegations relating to falsification of signatures from registered voters, his lawyer Saber Laabidi told the Associated Press. Last month, authorities arrested the treasurer of Zammel’s former party on similar charges.

Also Monday, Tunisia’s electoral authority confirmed that only incumbent Saied, Zammel, who leads a small pro-business party, and Zouhair Maghzaoui, a former left-wing pan-Arabist member of parliament, could run for president in the Oct. 6 election. A total of 17 candidates had initially sought to join the race.

Observers have expressed alarm at growing signs of democratic backsliding in Tunisia ahead of campaigning, which kicks off Sept. 14. Saied has imprisoned political opponents, suspended parliament and rewritten the constitution, consolidating his grip on the presidency in the country that set off democratic uprisings around the region a decade ago known as the Arab Spring.

The electoral authority’s decision Monday flew in the face of a decision last week by Tunisia’s highest administrative court, which ruled in favor of reinstating three other candidates who had initially been barred from running by the electoral commission.

The electoral commission refused to reinstate them, arguing Monday that it didn’t receive the administrative court’s ruling within the legal deadlines. Electoral commission president Farouk Bouaskar also cited a shortage of endorsements or the required financial deposit of 10,000 dinars (3,000 euros).

Critics called the commission’s decision politically motivated. Faycel Bouguerra, a spokesperson for the administrative court, told local radio Diwan FM that the failure to implement the rulings of the administrative court is unprecedented.

Members of NGOs and opposition parties demonstrated outside the offices of the electoral commission against the exclusion of the three candidates.

Those approved didn’t include Saied’s most prominent critics: the Free Destourian Party’s imprisoned leader Abir Moussi on the right and a former figure from Islamist party Ennahda Abdellatif Mekki, both of whom filed papers to run.

Despite expectations of a barely-contested vote, Saied has upended Tunisia’s political sphere in recent months. Last month he sacked the majority of his cabinet and his critics decried a wave of arrests and gag orders on leading opposition figures as politically driven.

The country has seen political participation wane since Saied took office in 2019. Large segments of Tunisia’s population continue to support him and his populist rhetoric targeting corrupt elites and foreign interference into domestic affairs. Last year’s local election saw a turnout of just 11%.