The Administrative Court in Tunisia announced on Friday the validation of an appeal paving the way for the reinstatement in the presidential race of October 6 of Imed Daïmi, a former adviser to President Moncef Marzouki, which would make him the sixth candidate.
In recent days, the Administrative Court has upheld two appeals, that of Mondher Zenaïdi, 73, a former Minister of Transport in the Ben Ali regime considered a serious rival to President Kais Saied, and that of Abdellatif Mekki, a former leader of the Islamo-conservative Ennahdha movement.
According to observers, everything seemed ready for the presidential election on October 6 to go off without a hitch for the outgoing head of state. Kaïs Saïed, who already saw himself being re-elected for a second term in the first round against “two small candidates”, finds himself facing “real competitors”.
The Administrative Court, which sits in Tunis, has thus ruled on all the appeals filed. The electoral authority (ISIE) plans to announce the final list of presidential candidates next week, after examining the Court’s decisions.
On August 10, the ISIE announced that it had only retained three candidates, including that of President Saied, 66, who was democratically elected in 2019 before taking full powers in the summer of 2021. Mr. Saied, who is seeking a second term, is accused of authoritarianism by his detractors and the opposition. The two other initial candidates in the running were Zouhair Maghzaoui, 59, a former member of parliament for the pan-Arabist left, and the liberal industrialist Ayachi Zammel, 43.
Tunisian and foreign NGOs have criticized the candidate selection process, including the imprisonment and legal proceedings launched against several potential candidates.
On August 20, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that “at least eight potential candidates [had] been prosecuted, convicted or imprisoned” and, de facto, “prevented from running.”
