Tunisia’s Karoui still presidential candidate despite arrest – Electoral Commission

Tunisian media magnate, Nabil Karoui, remains in the race for next month’s presidential election despite his arrest on Friday, the electoral commission said on Saturday.

Tunisian Police arrested Karoui after a court-ordered his detention in a case involving charges of money laundering and tax evasion.

His party said his detention was a politically motivated attempt to exclude him from the election race.

A government official rejected that accusation and said it was a judicial matter and nothing to do with the government.

The electoral commission said Karoui was still in the race.

“As long as there are no changes in his legal status and no final verdict, Nabil Karoui remains a presidential candidate,’’ Nabil Baffoun, the head of the electoral commission, told reporters.

Karoui, 56, owner of the Nesma TV channel, is one of the frontrunners contesting the Sept. 15 election, following the death last month of 92-year-old President Beji Caid Essebsi.

Essebsi is the first head of state to be democratically elected in Tunisia, following the popular uprising of 2011.

Karoui’s main rival among the 26 candidates in the race is Prime Minister Youssef Chahed.

Other candidates include former president Moncef Marzouki and Abdel Fattah Mourou, vice president of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party.

Tunisia’s president controls foreign and defence policy, governing alongside a prime minister, chosen by parliament who has authority over domestic affairs.

Karoui founded the Khalil Tounes Foundation in 2017 to fight poverty, the main theme in his campaign.

In June, parliament passed an amendment to its electoral law, which would have banned Karoui from running for president.

The draft banned candidates, who benefit from “charitable associations” or foreign funding during the year before an election.

But Essebsi had not signed the law before he died, allowing Karoui to run. (Reuters/NAN)