Tunisian authorities have placed presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel in police custody on suspicion of lying about details of his campaign for next month’s election, local media reported Monday.
The prosecutor’s office in Manouba, west of Tunis, ordered that Zammel be placed in police custody for 48 hours alongside a manager from his electoral campaign, the media reported.
The prosecutor’s office did not reply to AFP’s request for comment.
Zammel, one of two candidates approved to challenge President Kais Saied on the October 6 poll, was arrested outside the capital Tunis on Monday morning, campaigner Mahdi Abdeljaouad told Mosaique FM radio.
He was suspected of forging endorsement signatures required under Tunisian law to show he had enough support to stand for election, according to his campaign.
Saied, who is seeking a second term, won power in a 2019 election but orchestrated a sweeping power grab in 2021 and has since ruled by decree.
Later in the day, the electoral board, ISIE, said it upheld its rejection of three other candidates whose appeals were granted by the country’s administrative court last week.
The court had allowed the previously dismissed hopefuls to join the race in a verdict it called “definitive”.
But on Monday, ISIE chief Farouk Bouasker said the board’s initial list of candidates was also “definitive” and “not subject to appeal”.
The treasurer of Zammel’s Azimoun party was also arrested last month on charges of forging ballot signatures.
To appear on the ballot, candidates are required to present a list of signatures either from 10,000 registered voters, 10 parliamentarians or 40 local officials.
Several would-be candidates have been accused of forging these signatures.
HRW has said at least eight prospective candidates have been “prosecuted, convicted or imprisoned”.
On Saturday, a petition signed by prominent Tunisians and civil society groups urged that rejected candidates be allowed to stand in the presidential election.
The rejected candidates whose appeals were granted are Imed Daimi, an adviser to former president Moncef Marzouki, former minister Mondher Zenaidi and opposition party leader Abdellatif Mekki.
The petition said the administrative court’s rulings on appeals “are enforceable and cannot be contested by any means whatsoever”.
It also called on ISIE to “respect the law and avoid any practice that could undermine the transparency and integrity of the electoral process”.
But ISIE’s announcement of the official list of candidates on Monday dashed such hopes.
