Tunisian Court Allows Islamist Candidate to Resume Election Bid, Revives Campaign
Tunisia’s administrative court will issue further rulings this week regarding other politicians, including Mondher Zenaidi, Imed Daimi and Abir Moussi.
A Tunisian court on Tuesday upheld an appeal by prominent opposition politician Abdellatif Mekki, allowing him to resume his bid for the presidency in an election expected on October 6, judicial and political sources said.
The electoral commission had excluded Mekki from the race due to what it said was a lack of popular endorsements. A judicial official, Faycel Boguira, said that the court’s decision was final and could not be appealed.
Tunisia’s administrative court will issue further rulings this week regarding other politicians who have filed appeals after the commission also rejected their candidacy papers. They include Mondher Zenaidi, Imed Daimi and Abir Moussi.
The court’s decision adds Mekki, head of the Action and Achievement Party, to a list of accepted candidates, namely the incumbent, President Kais Saied, and politicians Ayachi Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui.
In so doing, the court’s position changes the tone of the campaign which had grown increasingly stale as voters assumed Saied will not face any opposition candidate with Maghzaoui and Zammel viewed as relatively accommodating to the current president.
Mekki was a prominent official in the Islamist Ennahda party but left to found a rival party in 2022. However, he still enjoys widespread support among supporters of Ennahda, one of Tunisia’s largest political parties.
“The court decision is fair and highlights the image of the administrative court, known for its integrity even in the darkest periods in Tunisia’s history,” Ahmed Nafati, Mekki’s campaign manager, said.
Mekki’s campaign managers are trying to minimise the impact of previous court decisions that ban him from running for political office or making any statements to the media, saying these decisions have been made obsolete by the administrative court ruling.
Political analysts say the candidacy of Mekki being now irreversible could revive fears of an Islamist comeback, Ennahda’s support base having shrunk considerably in the country since its exit from power in 2021.
Much will depend however on the final decision to be taken by the administrative court regarding the candidacies of Moussi and Zenaidi, both secularists linked to the regime of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The latter is however perceived as open to reconciliation with Islamists.
