By Tarek Amara
TUNIS (Reuters) -Tunisia’s parliament approved a law stripping the Administrative Court of its authority to adjudicate electoral disputes on Friday, nine days before the presidential election and fuelling opposition fears of a rigged result aimed at keeping President Kais Saied in power.
The Administrative Court is widely seen as the North African country’s last independent judicial body, after Saied dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and dismissed dozens of judges in 2022.
Out of a total 161 lawmakers, 116 voted for the major amendment to the electoral law.
The current parliament assembly was elected in 2022 on an 11% voter turnout after Saied dissolved the previous parliament in what the opposition has described as a coup.
As a large police contingent erected iron barriers to block access to parliament, dozens of protesters held placards saying “Assassination of Democracy” and “Rigged election”. Some protesters chanted, “Dictator Saied … your turn has come!”
Civil rights activists and opposition parties including the Free Constitutional Party, whose leader is in jail, called for protests on Saturday.
“We are witnessing the capture of the state days before the vote,” political activist Chaima Issa said. “We are at the peak of absurdity and one-man rule.”
PRESIDENTIAL RIVALS DISQUALIFIED
The Administrative Court this month ordered the electoral commission to reinstate disqualified presidential candidates, saying the legitimacy of the Oct. 6 election was in question.
But the commission defied the court and has allowed only two candidates to run against Saied.
Lawmakers said they had proposed the bill because they believed the Administrative Court was no longer neutral and could annul the election and plunge Tunisia into chaos and a constitutional vacuum.
Critics argue that Saied is using the electoral commission and the judiciary to secure victory by stifling competition and intimidating rivals. Saied says he is fighting traitors, mercenaries and corruption.
Saied was democratically elected in 2019, but then tightened his grip on power and began ruling by decree in 2021. Presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was sentenced last week to 20 months in prison on charges of falsifying popular endorsements, and to a further six months on Wednesday on charges of falsifying documents.
Abir Moussi, leader of the Free Constitutional Party, has been imprisoned since last year on charges of harming public security. Another prominent politician, Lotfi Mraihi, was jailed this year on charges of vote-buying in 2019.
Both had said they would run in October, but were prevented from submitting their applications from jail.
Another court jailed four other potential candidates in August and gave them lifetime bans from running for office.
(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Leslie Adler)
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