Tunisian President Saied to Seek Second Term

Tunisian President Kais Saied said he will run for another presidential term in Oct. 6 elections.

The candidacy aims "to continue the national liberation struggle," Saied said in a video on the presidency's Facebook page.

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.

The re-election bid was announced the same day a court jailed opposition leader Lotfi Mraihi, a potential presidential election candidate, to eight months in prison on a charge of vote buying.

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.

The opposition says fair and credible elections cannot be held unless imprisoned politicians are released and the media is allowed to do its job without pressure from the government.

Saied, who was elected in 2019, dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree in a move the opposition has described as a coup.

The president said his steps were legal and necessary to end years of rampant corruption among the political elite.

The repressive measures have raised fears about the trajectory of the North African nation 13 years after protestors toppled its longtime dictator in the first of the regional uprisings that later became known as the Arab Spring.

Saied, a 66-year-old former law professor, rose to power in 2019, capitalizing on anger against politicians who failed to fulfill the promises of the revolution and make Tunisia more economically prosperous. Two years after winning the election, Saied sacked the prime minister, suspended Tunisia's parliament, and had the constitution rewritten to consolidate his own power.

Tunisia has since imprisoned dozens of his critics from the business and political sphere.