Candidate behind bars .. What if the villager won the presidency of Tunisia?

Amal Hilali - Tunisia

The situation of presidential candidate Nabil Karoui has sparked popular and legal controversy in Tunisia. He is running in the race behind bars after a judicial decision to stop him and his brother in cases of corruption and money laundering.

On August 23, the head of the "Heart of Tunisia" party, Karoui, was jailed for carrying out two charges brought against him by the indictment of the Malian judicial tycoon against a complaint filed by the supervisory organization "I am Awaken".

The hypothesis of the victory of the villager opened the debate wide for lawmakers and observers, in the absence of an explicit legal provision on the presence of a candidate in prison, at a time when parliament failed to focus the Constitutional Court, which is entrusted with the consideration of such legal status.

Legislative vacuum
Electoral Commission member Anis Jarboui said that Karoui still retains his full rights as a candidate for the elections after accepting the file of his candidacy, as long as there is no judicial ruling on it.

He stressed - in his talk to Al Jazeera Net - that if the candidate succeeded in passing the first round to the second he continues to contest the election, but he pointed to the existence of what he called the legislative vacuum if the villager was able to win the elections.

He continued, "The process of handing over and handing over power and performing the constitutional oath, which requires the winner of the elections to the House of Representatives, poses a problem not explained by the Tunisian legislator in the case of the villager who is currently in prison."

Exaggerated
In contrast, constitutional law expert Moataz El Karkouri said that talk of a legislative or constitutional vacuum in the case of the rural candidate is exaggerated.

He pointed out - in his talk to Al Jazeera Net - that the legislator can not predict all legal situations, but also identified general principles applied by criminal and electoral article by opening the door of jurisprudence in the law.

He acknowledged the difficulty of resolving the situation of the villager to refer to the various principles of the Constitution and the electoral law and the criminal magazine, stressing that the acceptance of his candidacy and enjoy the presumption of innocence and the absence of a conviction makes him always retains his chances in the race for the presidency.

The constitutional expert explained that the immunity does not enjoy the candidate only if he performs the section and actually exercise his job, stressing that the purpose is to protect the position and not the person.

Will of the people
The absence of the presidential debate, which is a precedent in the history of the Tunisian elections, raised another debate about the candidate's right to participate in this debate in the absence of a final judgment condemning him, which was considered by his campaign manager Hatem al-Maliki as a blow to the principle of equal opportunities between the candidates.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, al-Maliki said that the village defense organization has submitted a request to the public television administration to enable the candidate to participate in the debate via "Skype" but their demand has been rejected.

He pointed out that it was refrained from allocating a vacant place for the villager, like the other candidates present in the debate "in a clear violation of the right of the candidate in his election campaign and the principle of equal opportunities."

He stressed that talking about a legislative vacuum in the position of his client is unjust, as he was detained in a conservative manner and has not been issued any final judgments.

He pointed out that if the villager succeeds in moving to the second round or went even further by winning the presidential elections, "the will of the people and the voters becomes the highest authority and no one can touch this constitutional principle."

He considered that - in the case of a final judicial ruling that meets all the requirements of a fair trial and the degrees of litigation - it is natural to abide by the decision, and can not take over his duties.

In the first international position on the issue, the EU Election Observation Mission in Tunisia called on the authorities to respect the principle of equal opportunities for presidential candidates during the election campaign.

The mission called in a statement posted on its Twitter account, on Monday evening, to enable the villager, the right to hold the presidential debate as stipulated in the electoral law.

Dialogue from prison
In a media precedent, the legal lawyer for the private channel "Tunisian dialogue" Abdel Aziz Essid agreed to the election commission to hold a dialogue with the rural candidate from inside the prison.

He confirmed to Al Jazeera Net that the channel made this request out of its keenness to enshrine the principle of equality in media appearances and electoral coverage for all candidates without distinction according to the electoral law.

In a report on the situation of the villager, Le Monde recalled a similar situation in Peru in its 2016 presidential election, with candidate Gregorio Santos running in the race with bribery cases.

The newspaper pointed out that he was able to participate in the first round and campaigned through telephone interventions, allowing the judiciary to leave the prison for ten hours after passing to the second round to debate in front of his opponent Alfredo Bernecia.