While the Independent High Authority for Elections has affirmed that the presidential and parliamentary candidates didn’t resign is not considered a ‘violation of the law’, controversy continued regarding the legality of candidates resuming their electoral journey.
Head of the Independent High Authority for Elections Nabil Baffoun noted that the authority is applying legal regulations concerning the administration's impartiality, which includes financial, human, materialistic and nonmaterialistic resources such as using government posts during the electoral campaign.
Baffoun added that there are standards adopted by the authority and the Tunisian judiciary to discriminate between the ministerial position and the electoral campaign.
Tunisian Defense Minister Abdel-Karim Zbidi – who is running for presidential elections scheduled on Sep. 15 – resigned from his ministerial position to guarantee the transparency of the electoral process.
By this step, he sparked controversy in Tunisia – however, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed didn’t let go of his post even though he is running for presidential elections. Chahed asserted that there are no legal or constitutional obstacles in this regard.
In the same context, experts at the constitutional law affirmed that Zbidi has breached chapter 92 of the Tunisian constitution.
For his part, Zbidi stated that he fell a victim for a systematic and fierce campaign that seeks to defame him – he accused several parties and bodies of standing behind this campaign.
Meanwhile, Tahya Tounes has decided to sack secretary-general in Mounstir Nabil Haddad for violating the internal system. This follows calls by Haddad, and other leaders of Mounstir, for Chahed to back off his candidacy and support Zbidi.
Mohamed Fadhel Mahfouz, in charge of relations with constitutional bodies, has resigned from his ministerial position to devote himself for the parliamentary elections.
