Amal Hilali - Tunisia
Tunisia's premature presidential race has not been without the humor and tandem that accompanied some candidates, whether formally filing their files or announcing it before domestic and international media cameras and then retreating, to provoke a storm of controversy.
The final number of candidates is close to 100. They are divided between independent and partisan personalities whose weight and political history are immersed in the public in a scene that many saw as the embodiment of a constitutional right, while others described it as an offensive scene of the prestige of the post of president.
The Independent High Electoral Commission closed its doors on Friday before the candidates for the post of President, bringing the total number of 97 candidates, as confirmed by member of the Commission Adel Al-Princesi of Al Jazeera Net, stressing that 66 candidates dropped their files because they did not meet the necessary recommendations.
Sarcasm and criticism
Aside from the serious candidates who filed their files, Tunisian media platform activists have been preoccupied with obscure figures from middle and lower social strata who have seen themselves as competing and have submitted their candidacy for the highest political position in the country.
Earlier, a performer and dancer named Nermin Safar announced her intention to run for the election, launching a controversial election program by giving women two-thirds of the inheritance and banning the "Afghan" outfit in exchange for wearing the traditional Tunisian dress known as "Sassafari".
In turn, policeman Fathi Karimi raised controversy because of the indifference that appeared during the presentation of his candidacy to the headquarters of the Electoral Commission, with an open neck tie, where many saw him inappropriate, while stressing that it was intended to deliver a message to Tunisians.
The Ministry of Interior announced the suspension of Karimi from work and submitted to the disciplinary committee, because of his candidacy for the presidential elections without obtaining a legal license from the ministry.
For his part, a painter living a life of displacement named Abdelhamid Ammar filed his candidacy, which filled the Tunisians because of a picture taken with a shaggy beard and worn clothes in the farewell to the President of the Republic during the convoy of his funeral in the center of the capital.
Also among the controversial candidates, a shepherd, known as a scraper, said his election platform was based on defending the rights of peasants and the poor.
Another pro-revolutionary candidate, Mohamed Amine Oqrbi, chose to run in the presidential elections to send, as he announced on his Facebook page, a harsh message to remnants of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, clinging to his constitutional right to stand for election.
black comedy
Sociologist Adel El-Wachani described the turnout of Tunisians of all social strata to run for office as a health phenomenon, which broke the stereotype of the transcendent president on popular classes.
He told Al Jazeera Net that "the descent of power from the elite and class segregation to the connected social interior is evidence of the general feeling of Tunisians after the revolution that the elevators of social promotion open to all and that the dream of access to the presidency is not impossible."
He stressed that a large number of those who submitted their candidacy, which was described as "folklore" was aimed at appearing in the media and draw attention around them and live a sense of stardom, even for a short time, but also a kind of "black comedy" in the framework of dare to power in the greatest manifestations after decades of repression And tyranny.
Intellectuals and politicians reacted to the diversity of the presidential election, while their views differed on the nature of the candidates and their names.
The researcher Karim Marzouki compared the electoral scene in Tunisia with his counterpart in Egypt, after Sisi threw his rivals in prison during the presidential elections.
`` On the last day of running for the presidential elections, we can only take pride in the eight-day scene in front of candidates presenting their files without restrictions, which led simple citizens to run without completing the conditions, '' he said in a blog post.
The former leader of the appeal of Tunisia Burhan Bsais commented without ridicule of the image of a candidate from the public while presenting the file of his candidacy before the election commission with a bag of bread in his hand.
"I am the people, I am the people, I do not know the impossible," he said.
Besis, who is considered one of the most prominent aspects of the regime of former President Ben Ali, has issued an invitation to the Electoral Commission to stop receiving what he described as "hordes of troubled and passers-by" is not serious, stressing that it will contribute to the image of the state.
Early presidential elections are expected to take place in the middle of next month, and it is difficult to predict what the outcome of the fund will be, with all major parties entering their electoral weight by nominating figures of great weight, such as Ennahda Vice President Abdel Fattah Moro and Prime Minister Youssef Chahed.