Tunisian presidential candidates began campaigning on Monday for the Sept. 15 election against a backdrop of economic troubles and a militant shooting that underlined the challenges facing the only democracy to emerge from the 2011 Arab uprisings, APA reports citing Reuters.
Among the 24 men and two women running for election are the prime minister, a media magnate detained last month on suspicion of tax fraud and money laundering, and a candidate from a moderate Islamist party that was banned before the revolution.
The presidential election was called early because of the death in July of president Beji Caid Essebsi.
Several candidates began their campaigns on the stroke of midnight, when the election season officially began, with Chahed meeting hundreds of supporters in the capital’s impoverished Kabarya district.
Other prominent candidates include former president Moncef Marzouki, former prime minister Mehdi Jomaa and Defence Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi.
Abdelfattah Mourou, vice president of Ennahda party, is the moderate Islamist party’s first candidate to become head of state after decades of repression before 2011.
“We want to succeed in order to change the lives of Tunisians for the better and to strengthen the democratic path,” Mourou said while sticking up election posters in Tunis.
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