Do the challenges of 6 candidates fluctuate the results of the presidential elections in Tunisia?

Amal Hilali - Tunisia

A number of candidates for the early presidential elections filed complaints with the judicial authorities to challenge the results of the first round, which led to the candidates qualify Qais Said and Nabil Karawi for the second round.

Two days ago, the Administrative Court received six appeals filed by the losers: Abdel Karim al-Zubaidi, Yusuf al-Shahid, Salim Riahi, Hatem Boulbiyar, Naji Djelloul and Saifeddine Makhlouf.

A change in the election calendar
This procedure makes it impossible to organize the second round of the presidential elections on the first date set by the Electoral Commission on September 29, according to the Vice President Farouk Bouaskar told Al Jazeera Net.

The electoral law requires the second round of elections to be held no later than 15 days from the date of the announcement of the final results of the first round. The decisions of the electoral commission shall be challenged by the candidates not later than 48 hours from the date of the announcement of the results.

Bouaskar pointed out that the Commission has set three presumed dates for the second round, either on September 29, a hypothesis that was dropped after the submission of appeals, and the sixth of October in conjunction with the date of the legislative elections, and is also hostage not to resume by the Commission or parties Complainant.

He pointed out that the earliest date for the second round of the presidential elections will be premature on October 13 next.

On the extent of the impact of appeals by some candidates on the results of the announced elections; ruled Bouaskar the matter, stressing that the failures that were monitored by some candidates assessed by the Commission that they do not affect the results.

Regarding the status of the two candidates, Qais Said and Nabil Al-Qarawi, the Vice-President of the Electoral Commission said that the violations committed against them throughout the electoral period do not rise to the point of excluding them from the top of the ranks due to the vast difference in the number of votes between them and other candidates who got the third and fourth places.

Candidate Qais Saeed got the first place with 620,711 votes, while his direct rival Nabil Al-Qarawi won 525,517 votes, but Abdul Karim Al-Zubaidi got 361,864 votes, followed by Youssef Al-Shahed with 249,49 votes.

Appeals against the villager and Moro
Fawzi Abdul Rahman, campaign manager of the candidate Abdul Karim Al-Zubaidi, said in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that filing a complaint with the Administrative Court to challenge the results submitted by the Electoral Commission comes as part of the availability of serious data related to serious violations committed by prominent candidates.

He criticized the performance of the election commission for what he said was the lack of transparency in dealing with candidates, and rejected their request to invite the President of the Commission to publish its deliberations publicly from the minutes of the promotion of electoral crimes.

He confirmed that their candidate, Abdul Karim al-Zubaidi, appealed to the judiciary in order to ask the Tunisian state to apply the law, and not to target individuals or institutions.

As for appeals against both candidates Abdel Fattah Moro and Nabil Karoui, the director of the Zubaidi campaign justified the order to raise the violations committed by both candidates to dangerous degrees mainly related to political publicity, which would affect the will of the voters.

He stressed that their approach to these appeals, which he described as serious, was based mainly on statements and reports submitted by the Independent High Electoral Commission as the oversight body, on the commission of these candidates violations in audiovisual media uplift the level of electoral crimes.

Serious breaches
For his part, Hisham Snoussi, a member of the High Commission for Audiovisual Communication (Haika) that the Commission monitored a series of breaches throughout the election campaign, committed by private media, including the channel "Nesma" owned by candidate Nabil Karoui, and "Zaytouna" known for its proximity to the movement Ennahdha, and another related to the channels of "dialogue" and "ninth", which, according to him, is elevated.

Al-Sanousi stressed in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net that the most serious of these violations related mainly to political publicity and lack of respect for electoral campaign controls, but he noted that monitoring the impact of these violations on the will of the voter remains the discretion of the Electoral Commission in the first stage, and then the administrative judiciary in the second stage.