Tunisian opposition leader jailed and banned from presidential elections

A Tunisian court has sentenced opposition party leader Lotfi Mraihi to eight months in prison on a charge of vote buying, his lawyer said on Friday.

The court also banned Mraihi, leader of the Republican Union Party and one of the most prominent critics of President Kais Saied, from running in presidential elections for life, his lawyer Omar Ismail said.

Opposition parties, many of whose leaders are in prison, have accused Saied’s government of exerting pressure on the judiciary to crack down on his rivals in the 2024 elections and pave the way for him to win a second term.

In 2021 Saied dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree in a move the opposition have described as a coup. Saied said his steps were legal and necessary to end years of rampant corruption among the political elite.