The Tunisian Administrative Court upheld on Thursday an appeal by prominent candidate Mondher Znaidi, thereby allowing him to return to the presidential race expected on October 6, a judicial official said, in the second such ruling this week.
The decision will restore momentum to the election race and could toughen the contest for current President Kais Saied, who is seeking a second term.
The Administrative Court also returned Abdellatif Mekki to the race on Tuesday after the electoral commission had rejected his candidacy filing.
Judicial official Faycel Bouguera said that the court’s decision on Thursday was final and could not be challenged on appeal.
Znaidi, a former minister who worked with late president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ousted by mass protests in 2011, lives in Paris and says “he wants to rebuild Tunisia, unite all Tunisians and end years of division that Saied sowed”.
Znaidi is counting on those angry with Saied’s rule in the past five years and the rule of Islamists after the revolution to win votes in the October election. He also hopes to attract the votes of supporters of the former regime, which is widely seen as a large electoral reservoir.
The court’s decision adds Znaidi to a list of accepted candidates that also includes Saied and politicians Ayachi Zammel, Zouhair Maghzaoui and Abdelattif Mekki.
Tunisian opposition parties, politicians and human rights groups have accused the authorities of using “arbitrary restrictions” and intimidation to help ensure the re-election of Saied.
They say the electoral commission is not neutral and is seeking to eliminate all serious competitors to pave the way for Saied’s victory. The commission denies the accusations.
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”.