Tunisian judge frees presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel
By Tarek Amara
TUNIS (Reuters) – A Tunisian judge ordered the release of presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel from jail on Thursday, lawyers said, a month before an election that opposition critics say is rigged in favour of President Kais Saied.
Zammel was arrested on Monday on suspicion of falsifying voter forms. Each candidate must submit forms from 10,000 supporters to qualify for the election. He denies the allegation.
He is one of the three candidates approved to run in the Oct. 6 election along with Saied and politician Zouhair Maghzaoui.
Zammel has said he faces “restrictions and intimidation” because he is a serious competitor to Saied. He has pledged to rebuild democracy, guarantee freedoms and fix the collapsing economy.
Saied was democratically elected in 2019 then tightened his grip on power and began ruling by decree in 2021 in a move the opposition described as a coup.
Major political factions say Saied’s years in power have eroded the democratic gains of the 2011 revolution.
Tunisian opposition parties and human rights groups have accused the authorities of using arbitrary restrictions to help ensure Saied’s re-election.
The electoral commission on Monday rejected an administrative court ruling reinstating three prominent presidential candidates, reinforcing opposition fears that the commission sought to favour the incumbent president.
Law professors, rights groups and political parties said the commission’s decisions threatened to undermine the legitimacy and credibility of the elections and called on it to back down.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)