Tunisia president says he will seek new term in October election

Tunisian President Kais Saied, who grabbed wide-ranging powers two years after his 2019 election, announced on Friday he will seek a new five-year term in an election set for October.

"I officially announce my candidacy for the October 6 presidential election in order to keep up the fight in the battle for national liberation," Saied, who has ruled by decree since suspending parliament in July 2021, said in a video released by his office.

Speaking in the southern region of Tatouine, the 66-year-old said he was answering the "country's sacred call" which left him no choice but to run for a second term.

Several would-be challengers to the president who had announced their candidacy are either in prison or being prosecuted.

In his announcement Friday, Saied called on "everyone preparing to sponsor (candidates) to steer off any corruption".

Lotfi Mraihi, head of the left-wing opposition party Republican People's Union, received an eight-month prison sentence earlier Friday and a lifetime ban on standing for office, Tunisian media reported.

He had been arrested on July 3 on suspicion of corruption.

Abir Moussi, a vocal critic of Saied and head of the Free Destourian Party, has been jailed since October last year.

Her party is often described as nostalgic for the autocratic era of independence hero Habib Bourguiba and his successor Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Issam Chebbi, a leader of the main opposition National Salvation Front who was arrested in February 2023 for "plotting against the state", dropped out of the race on Thursday, his party said.

Abdellatif Mekki, a former health minister and leader of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha movement who now heads the Amal w Injaz party, also said last month he was withdrawing his candidacy.

In a hearing over the 2014 killing of a political figure, a judge barred Mekki from leaving the country and making public declarations.

Amnesty International said this week that Tunisian authorities had "stepped up their crackdown on the political opposition".

Its statement came after the arrest of an Ennahdha leader, Ajmi Ouirimi, whose party was the biggest in parliament before Saied dissolved the legislature in July 2021.

"These arrests are particularly concerning ahead of the upcoming presidential election," said Amnesty, calling for an end to the "authorities' disrespect for human rights and their crackdown against opponents".

On Sunday, Tunisian watchdog I Watch denounced "complicated procedures" and "a methodical absence of transparency" for elections in the North African country.