Tunisia Banned presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi from running in any elections for life

Tunisia's opposition party leader and potential presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi has been sentenced to eight months in prison for vote-buying, his lawyer said on Friday.

Lawyer Omar Ismail said the court also ruled to ban Lotfi Mrayhi, leader of the Popular Republican Union party and one of President Kais Saied's most prominent critics, from running for president for life.

Ismail added that Al-Maraihi will appeal the verdict.

For his part, the official spokesman for the High Elections Authority, Mohamed Tlili Mansri, confirmed in a statement to "Mosaique FM" that the representative of the Secretary-General of the "Popular Republican Union" party, Mohamed Lotfi Mraïhi, withdrew the nomination form to run for the presidential elections.

Al-Mansouri explained that the special power of attorney will be valid for all stages of the electoral process, according to his statement.

Al-Mansouri stated that 74 people had withdrawn the popular endorsement form to run for the 2024 presidential elections by Thursday, July 18, including those who had come in person to receive the form according to the terms and rules set by the Election Commission.

He stated that there were those who gave a special power of attorney to withdraw the form, and some of them were in prison, such as Al-Maraihi.

Tunisia Banned presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi from running in any elections for life

It is noteworthy that the investigating judge at the Court of First Instance in Tunis issued on July 5 a warrant for imprisonment against Mohamed Lotfi Mraihi and the secretary-general of the party in which he is active for the “crime of forming an alliance with the intent of money laundering and smuggling profits abroad and dealing between a resident and a non-resident,” according to what Mohamed Zitouna, the official spokesman for the Court of First Instance in Tunis, stated. 

The Public Prosecution Office at the Court of First Instance in Tunis also decided to issue a warrant for imprisonment against Mohamed Lotfi Al-Mraihi, the Secretary-General of the party in which he is active, and three other people, and to refer them to the Criminal Council of the same court for the crime of offering cash gifts with the intent to influence voters, according to Mohamed Zitouna, the spokesman for the Court of First Instance in Tunis.