After being arrested on Monday, and his release ordered by a judge on Thursday, Tunisian presidential contender, Ayachi Zammel, remained in custody as of Friday, his campaign staff reported.

Zammel is one of three candidates approved by Tunisia’s electoral commission for an Oct. 6 presidential election that opposition sources allege is rigged for President Kais Saied.

Authorities accuse him of electoral irregularities.

He was reportedly released from police custody for the first time before being re-arrested. But he remained in prison Friday, his campaign staff told Reuters. Mahadi Abdel Jawed: “Zammel was arrested minutes after his release last night.”

For next month’s election, he’s accused of fraudulent voter forms. All candidates must submit 10,000 supporter forms to run. He denies accusations.

Zammel says he is restricted and intimidated since he is a serious Saied competitor. He promises democracy, liberties, and economic recovery for Tunisia.

Saied was democratically elected in 2019, but he took power by fiat in 2021, which the opposition called a coup.

Major political forces argue that Saied’s rule has damaged Tunisia’s 2011 revolution’s democratic accomplishments.

Human rights groups and opposition parties have accused the government of employing arbitrary limitations to re-elect Saied.

Presidential elections in Tunisia are scheduled for October 6, 2024. These are the first presidential elections since President Kais Saied’s 2021 coup attempt.

Political campaigns for the presidential election to succeed Filipe Nyusi in Mozambique are set to begin this week with four contenders competing for the presidency out of the at least 37 political parties and association movements vying for seats.

In the general election scheduled for October 9, over 17 million voters are enrolled to cast ballots, with over 300,000 of those voters being registered overseas.

Daniel Chapo is a candidate for the Frelimo party, which is in power and has the support of the government apparatus.

Venâncio Mondlane is running as an independent, Lutero Simango is representing the MDM, and Ossufo Momade is the primary opposition candidate for Renamo.

Throughout the past 20 years, the nation has had elections on schedule, which is a change from its chaotic past. Because of the civil war and, more lately, the northern insurgency, it has been forced to run with its eyes always on the rear.

When he signed the amended electoral legislation into law last week, outgoing President Nyusi informed the nation that this would be the first election in three decades that Mozambicans would not be watching an armed party.

He made it apparent that the nation intended the election campaign to inspire all voters to cast their ballots for the candidate and party of their choice, citing it as “the fruit of the peace and reconciliation” that they had built together as brothers.

According to the new election law, poll workers who fabricate election results might spend up to two years in prison. Additionally, the statute specifies that district judges would no longer be able to mandate vote recounts. The National Electoral Commission (CNE) and the Constitutional Council currently hold exclusive authority over this.

Additionally, it eliminates all restrictions on the journalists’ and observers’ attendance throughout every phase of the vote count, which was not the case previously.

Indicating his party’s desire to stay in power, 47-year-old Daniel Francisco Chapo promised, if elected president on October 9, to combat corruption by “digitalising state services.”

“We need to educate society in honesty. This will ensure that we don’t have corrupt people. Society needs ethical and moral values,” Mr Chapo told STV in an interview last week.

The President is elected via a two-round election system while the 250 members of the Assembly of the Republic are elected using proportional representation in eleven multi-member constituencies based on the country’s regions, as well as first-past-the-post in two single-member seats representing Mozambican residents living in Africa and Europe.