TUNIS, Aug 10 (NNN-AGENCIES ) – Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Friday submitted an application to run for president, making him one of the likely frontrunners in the country’s polls next month.
His liberal Tahya Tounes Party unanimously picked him as its candidate for the September 15 early elections, the official Tunisian news agency TAP reported.
According to Alchourouk newspaper, 98 presidential hopefuls had applied before the submission period ended on Friday evening.
They include former defence minister Abdelkarim Zibid; Abdelfattah Morou of the influential moderate Islamist Ennahda movement; former interim president Moncef Marzouki; and former prime minister Mehdi Jomaa.
The electoral commission is expected to announce the eligible contenders later this month.
On Friday, Chahed ruled out resigning over his bid for presidency.
“There is no legal reason for me to resign,” the 43-year-old premier said after he presented his application to an independent electoral commission in the capital Tunis.
“He who wants to talk about the government’s resignation wants to delay the election. The prime minister’s resignation means the resignation of the whole government,” he told reporters.
“The country is fighting terrorism and we are in the tourism season,” he added.
Chahed has been leading the government since 2016 amid economic hardships and militant attacks that have harmed Tunisia’s tourism industry, a key source of the national income.
On July 25, Tunisia’s first democratically elected president, Beji Caid Essebsi, died five months before the end of his term.
The country’s presidential election, originally scheduled for November 17, was pushed forward to September 15 due to his death.
Essebsi was elected president in December 2014 and subsequently steered Tunisia through its democratic transition in the wake of the 2011 revolt that toppled long-time autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The North African country is widely seen as the sole democratic success story of the 2010-11 Arab Spring revolts, but has struggled with an economic slowdown and social unrest.
NNN-AGENCIES