Tunisia's Independent Electoral Commission said the country will hold parliamentary and presidential elections in October and November respectively this year.
The parliamentary elections will be held on October 6, with the elections being held for Tunisians abroad on the fourth, fifth and sixth of the same month, Nabil Bafoun, president of the commission, told a news conference on Wednesday.
It is expected that the competition will be strong between the Islamic Renaissance Party and the new "Long Live Tunisia" party led by Prime Minister Yousef Al-Shahed, as well as the Tunisian Call Party headed by Hafez Qaid al-Sibsi, son of the country's president, as well as the Popular Front and the Democratic Party.
According to the Independent Electoral Commission, the first session of the presidential elections will be on 10 November, while the second session will be held within two weeks of the date of the first.
Presidential elections are also held for Tunisians outside the country on the eighth, ninth and tenth of the same month.
If none of the candidates wins the first round of presidential elections by an absolute majority, a second session will be organized, Pfoon said.
He stressed that the authority will tighten control over funding campaigns, "and if the existence of funds are suspicious, we will not tolerate the drop lists in the (elections) legislative or delete the names in (those) presidential."
The Commission, in accordance with the head of the electoral commission, will work to persuade as many Tunisians as possible to register for the elections, of which 5.7 million are registered out of a total of 8.9 million eligible.
The Commission will deploy about 3,000 registrars in all regions between 10 April and 22 May.
These elections will be the third of its kind under the auspices of an independent electoral commission since the revolution of 14 January 2011, and Tunisia has completed a new constitution beginning in 2014.