Reports surfacing on Friday has revealed that the Tunisian presidential candidate, Ayachi Zammel, is still in detention despite being released for a few hours a day earlier. This report was corroborated by his campaign team.
Zammel is one of three candidates who were approved by Tunisia’s electoral commission to run in the upcoming presidential election on Oct. 6 but opposition critics have said that the polls are rigged in favour of President Kais Saied.
Authorities have also accused him of election-related irregularities.
His first arrest had been on Monday and on Thursday, a judge ordered for him to be set free.
A state news agency TAP had reported on Friday that he had been freed from police custody, before he was re-arrested.
Zammel is being accused of falsifying voter forms for next month’s election. Note that each candidate must submit forms from 10,000 supporters to be able to qualify for the elections. He has denied this allegation.
Zammel has claimed that he faces restrictions and intimidation because he is a serious competitor to Saied.
President Saied was also democratically elected in 2019, but he clamped down on his power and began ruling by decree in 2021 in a move the opposition has tagged a coup.
Major political factions have claimed that Saied’s years in power have wiped the democratic gains of Tunisia’s 2011 revolution.
Zouhair Maghzaoui, along with Zammel and Saied are the approved candidates in the upcoming election.
