Tunisian President Saied Announces Re-election Bid
Tunisian President Kais Saied said on Friday he will run for another presidential term in Oct. 6 elections.
The candidacy aims “to continue the national liberation struggle,” Saied said in a video on the presidency’s Facebook page.
Opposition parties, many of whose leaders are in prison, have accused Saied’s government of exerting pressure on the judiciary to crack down on his rivals in the 2024 elections and pave the way for him to win a second term.
The re-election bid was announced the same day a court jailed opposition leader Lotfi Mraihi, a potential presidential election candidate, to eight months in prison on a charge of vote buying.Lotfi Mraihi, head of the left-wing opposition Republican People’s Union, was arrested on July 3 on suspicion of corruption.
The court also banned Mraihi, leader of the Republican Union Party from running in presidential elections for life.
Saied, who was elected in 2019, dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree in a move the opposition has described as a coup.
The president said his steps were legal and necessary to end years of rampant corruption among the political elite.
