Tunisian Defence Minister, Abdelkarim Zibid, on Wednesday applied to run in the country’s presidential polls on September, the official Tunisian news agency TAP reported.
The bid comes a day after Tunisia’s influential moderate Islamist Ennahda movement nominated its deputy head, Abdelfattah Morou, to vie in the September 15 election.
The nomination of Morou, a lawyer, marks the first time Ennahda will field a contender in the presidential vote since the 2011 uprising.
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Zibid, an independent, is backed by the ruling Nida Tounes Party and the centre-right Afak Tounes Party.
The 65-year-old resigned from his defence post after he announced his presidential bid, TAP reported.
Zibid and Morou join more than 20 presidential hopefuls, including ex-interim president, Moncef Marzouki, who have applied to contest the election.
The deadline for potential candidates to apply ends Friday.
The electoral commission is expected to announce the eligible contenders later this month.
On July 25, Tunisia’s first democratically elected president Beji 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.
Tunisia 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.(NAN)