Tunisia Presidential Candidate Zammel Sentenced to 12 Years Four Days to Polls
In Tunisia, Ayachi Zammel, a former lawmaker and leader of a liberal party faces a 12-year prison sentence ahead of the upcoming presidential elections on October 6. This ruling marks the third prison sentence Zammel has received in the past two weeks causing significant concern about the integrity of the electoral process.
Zammel’s recent legal troubles involve accusations related to voter endorsements. On September 18, he was sentenced to 20 months for allegedly falsifying signatures to support his candidacy. Following that, a Jendouba court handed him a six-month sentence for using a fraudulent certificate. Despite these legal challenges, Massoudi maintains that Zammel is still a candidate for the presidency.
His arrest on September 2 occurred just before Tunisia’s electoral authority confirmed Zammel’s place on the final list of candidates. The political landscape surrounding the election is fraught with tension as many anticipate that the process could be rigged to favor the incumbent president, Kais Saied, who is seeking a second term. Saied took office after the 2019 elections but has since consolidated power through significant political maneuvers including shutting down parliament and ruling by decree.
Concerns have been raised by opposition and civil society groups about the fairness of the electoral process especially since around 14 candidates were rejected leaving only Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui from the left-wing nationalist People’s Movement as challengers to Saied. The situation for Zammel is further complicated by the arrest of his party’s treasurer on similar charges indicating a troubling pattern of political repression in Tunisia in the lead-up to the elections.
