TUNIS: The Tunisian election board announced Saturday that three candidates including incumbent President Kais Saied had been cleared to run in upcoming elections.
Saied, 66, was democratically elected in 2019 but orchestrated a sweeping power grab in 2021 and is now seeking another term in office in elections to be held on October 6.
Farouk Bouasker, president of the High Independent Authority for Elections (ISIE), told a news conference that 14 other presidential hopefuls were barred from the race after "not collecting enough endorsements".
Apart from Saied, the two other candidates on the ballot are former lawmakers Zouhair Maghzaoui and Ayachi Zammel, who heads a little-known party.
Maghzaoui has come out in support of Saied's power grab.
Experts have said presidential hopefuls faced significant constraints in their bid to challenge Saied, who has faced accusations of an "authoritarian drift" and a "rollback" on freedoms from rights groups and critics.
To be listed on the ballot, candidates are required to present a list of signatures from 10,000 registered voters, with at least 500 voter signatures per constituency -- "an enormous number" according to political analyst Amine Kharrat -- or secure endorsements from lawmakers or local officials.
ISIE also required a clean criminal record.
Several would-be contenders complained of obstacles in obtaining their criminal records as well as the necessary endorsement forms.
Numerous potential candidates are behind bars, many of them over accusations of "conspiracy against the state".
As part of Saied's consolidation of power, Tunisia's constitution was rewritten in 2022 to create a presidential regime whose parliament has extremely limited powers.
More than 20 of Saied's opponents have been detained in a flurry of arrests that began in February 2023.
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Tunisia president among three cleared to run in election
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Tunisia president among three cleared to run in election
- Experts have said presidential hopefuls faced significant constraints in their bid to challenge Saied
One dead in Israeli strike on south Lebanon
- Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed in a strike on the village of Rub Thalatheen
- The Israeli army said in a statement that it killed a Hezbollah operative
BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on south Lebanon killed one person on Saturday, Lebanese authorities said, as the Israeli army said it targeted an operative from the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Israel has kept up regular strikes in Lebanon despite a November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war with Hezbollah.
It usually says it is targeting members of the group or its infrastructure, and has kept troops in five south Lebanon border areas that it deems strategic.
Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed in a strike on the village of Rub Thalatheen, close to the Israeli border.
The state-run National News Agency reported a man was killed in the strike while “carrying out repair work on the roof of a house.”
The Israeli army said in a statement that it killed a Hezbollah operative “who took part in attempts to reestablish Hezbollah terror infrastructure in the Markaba area,” adjacent to Rub Thalatheen.
It called the alleged activities “a violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
This month, Lebanon’s army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.
Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army’s progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.
More than 360 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of health ministry reports.
