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Tunisian police arrested presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel on Monday, amid growing fears among rights groups and the opposition that prominent rivals to President Kais Saied will be excluded from the race, Reuters reported, citing Mahdi Abdel Jawad, a member of his campaign.
The arrest comes as the electoral commission prepares to announce on Monday the final list of candidates accepted for the presidential elections scheduled for October 6.
Mahdi Abdel Jawad said police had arrested Zammel at his home at about 3:00 a.m. on suspicion of falsifying popular endorsements and added that “the matter has become absurd and aims to exclude him from the election”.
Political parties and human rights groups called in a join statement for a protest on Monday near the election headquarters to demand implementation of the court’s decision to reinstate the candidates and stop “arbitrary restrictions” and intimidation.
President Saied, who dissolved parliament and seized control of all powers in 2021 in a move described by the opposition as a coup, said last year “he would not hand over the country to non-patriots”.
