As president runs for new term, critics say credible polls can’t be held unless jailed opposition politicians are freed.

Tunisian President Kais Saied has said that he will seek a new five-year term in an election set for October.

Saied’s announcement comes as 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.

“I officially announce my candidacy for the October 6 presidential election in order to keep up the fight in the battle for national liberation,” Saied, who has ruled by decree since suspending parliament in July 2021, said on Friday in a video released by his office.

Speaking from the southern region of Tataouine, 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 July, Saied called the presidential vote for October 6.

Several potential challengers who had announced their candidacy are either in prison or being prosecuted.

In his announcement, Saied called on “everyone preparing to sponsor [candidates] to steer off any corruption”.

Lotfi Mraihi, the head of the opposition Republican Union party, received an eight-month sentence earlier on Friday on the charge of vote buying and a lifetime ban on running for president, Tunisian media reported.

Among Saied’s most prominent critics, Mraihi was arrested in July on suspicion of money laundering.

Crackdown on political opposition

Abir Moussi, the leader of the Free Constitutional Party and a prominent candidate, has been in prison since last year on charges of harming public security.

Moussi’s party said she was imprisoned to remove her from the presidential race, a claim denied by the authorities.

Other candidates – including Safi Saeed, Nizar Chaari and Abd Ellatif Mekki – are facing prosecution on charges such as fraud and money laundering.

Issam Chebbi, a leader of the main opposition National Salvation Front who was arrested in February 2023 for “plotting against the state”, dropped out of the race on Thursday, his party said.

Rached Ghannouchi, a prominent opposition leader and the former parliament speaker, has been in jail since April 2023 on charges his Ennahdha party received foreign contributions, which he and his supporters say are baseless.

Amnesty International said this week that Tunisian authorities had “stepped up their crackdown on the political opposition”.

Saied, a former constitutional law professor was elected to office in 2019 as an anti-establishment stalwart promising to root out corruption.