One in four candidates will be able to campaign in Tunisia. The electoral authority (Isie) announced on Wednesday (August 14th) that it had validated 26 candidatures for the Tunisian presidential election of September 15th after a preliminary examination of the files. Seventy-one were discarded.
Persons whose file has been rejected may appeal within 48 hours before the administrative court, which will be called to decide by August 31, when the final list of candidates must be published, added during a meeting. press conference, Nabil Baffoun, president of Isie.
Among the rejected candidates is that of Mounir Baatour, who stands as an advocate for LGBTQ rights, although it is disputed within this community. The candidacy of this lawyer openly claiming his homosexuality would have been a first in the history of the country and the Arab world. "The case of Mounir Baatour has not been validated because he did not collect the 10,000 signatures of registered voters", as is required, explained the spokesman of Isie, Hassna Ben Slimane .
Other applications were rejected for lack of financial guarantee, the threshold having been set at 10,000 dinars (about 3,200 euros).
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Two women in the list
Approved candidates include Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, former Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa, Deputy Chairman of the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, Abdel Fattah Mourou, and Minister of Defense Abdelkarim Zbidi. Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki and Nabil Karoui, a businessman and owner of the private channel Nessma TV, will also be able to campaign.
Only two women are in the list of 26 validated applications: the former Minister of Tourism, Salma Loumi, and Abir Moussi, in favor of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ousted during the 2011 uprising.
The first round of the presidential election will take place on September 15, the official campaign to be held between 2 and 13. The results of this first round will be announced on September 17, according to the electoral calendar of Isie. The date of the second round is not yet determined.
Expected at the end of the year, this election was anticipated following the death in July of Beji Caid Essebsi, who in 2014 was the first democratically elected president in universal suffrage in Tunisia's modern history.
With AFP and Reuters