Tunisia has entered a period of electoral silence in preparation for the vote on Sunday in the second parliamentary elections after the revolution, while the candidate of the second round of presidential elections, Qais Said, not to run a campaign with the continued arrest of his rival Nabil Karoui on charges of corruption.
Abroad, Tunisians continue to vote for the second day in a row to choose 18 representatives in the 217-member parliament.
Meanwhile, the candidate for the second round of presidential elections in Tunisia, Kais Said, decided not to campaign as his rival Nabil Karoui continues to be arrested on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
Said said in a statement published on his website on Saturday that he would not personally campaign for the selection of the President of Tunisia, attributing this to what he described as moral reasons, and "to ensure to avoid ambiguity about equal opportunities between candidates."
The statement stressed, in reference to the need to grant the villager the right to media statements - that "equal opportunities must also include the means available to both candidates."
Said said in previous press statements that he wishes to release his rival villager, who received 15.6% of the votes, and explained - in an interview broadcast by national television earlier - that "the situation is morally uncomfortable for me, honestly I would have preferred to be loose."
Said, a professor of constitutional law coming from outside the main parties, on September 15 topped the first place in the first round of elections with 18.4% of the vote, and the Electoral Commission set October 13 as the date for the second round of presidential elections.
On Friday, Tunisia's interim President Mohamed Nasser said that the status of jailed presidential candidate Nabil Karoui and his inability to communicate with his voters a week before the run-off would have serious repercussions on the credibility of the elections and the country's image.
Nasser said he would continue to make efforts to find what he described as an "honorable solution" to guarantee Karoui's right to communicate with his voters, saying the situation was "strange" and arousing interest and criticism in Tunisia and abroad.
The local and foreign organizations said that the villager did not have an equal opportunity in the first round, and was unable to go to his constituents in television debates, calling for giving him the right to contact his voters.