Tunisia's Saied announces reelection bid in October

Tunisian President Kais Saied has said he will run for a second term in the October 6 presidential election.

"I officially announce my candidacy for the presidential election on October 6 to continue the struggle of national liberation," Saied, who first won in 2019, said in a televised speech published on his Facebook page on Friday.

Speaking in the southern region of Tatouine, the 66-year-old said he was answering the "country's sacred call" which left him no choice but to run for a second term.

In his announcement on Friday, Saied called on "everyone preparing to sponsor (candidates) to steer off any corruption."

Saied, in 2019, capitalised on anger against politicians who failed to fulfil the promises of the revolution and make Tunisia more economically prosperous.

Political paralysis

The North African country has been in the grip of a deep political crisis since 2010 where Arab countries went through a series of social political change.

Whereas many Arab nations witnessed political and in some cases military violence, Rached Ghannouchi along with Tunisian politicians chose to not resort to violence and associate political wings to governance.

According to Arabi21, the head of Ennahda Movement in Tunisia, Rached Ghannouchi, has said that his party waived its right to authority in 2013 to help Tunisia avoid a civil war.

In 2021, when Saied deposed the government, dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree, the move was regarded as the democratic momentum starting to lose blood.

The main opposition coalition National Salvation Front says it would boycott the election due to "a lack of competition and imprisonment of political opponents."

The opposition boycotted the December 2022 parliamentary elections, as well as the local municipal elections held last December and early this year.

Earlier in the day, a court jailed Lotfi Mraihi, an opposition party leader and a potential presidential election candidate, to eight months in prison on charges of vote buying, and banned him from contesting elections for life.