Bin Ali presents presidential nomination request today

Tunisian President Zein al-Abidin Bin Ali presented today a request for a presidential nomination to the fact-finding committee for nominations in the council of deputies. The election is to be held on October 24.

Bin Ali assumed the presidency in 1987 after the outgoing El-Habib Bu Rekiba, the leader of the People's Unity Party and United Democratic Union, was retired according to an exceptional modification of the constitution that opened the way for several nominees to enter presidential elections, yet Bin Ali was the only one nominated for the presidential elections held in 1989 and 1994.

Furthermore, Tunisian sources said that the leader of the People's Unity Party, Mohamed Belhaj, and the leader of the Federal Democratic Party, Abd El-Rahman El-Tilili, are going to nominate themselves to the parliamentary committee after President Ben Ali is presented.

According to the exceptional modification of item 40 in the constitution, the right of nomination for presidential elections is confined into leaders of parties and representatives in the council of deputies on the condition that the age of the nominee does not exceed the 70 and that he has been chairing a party for more than five years.

There are six parties allowed to be nominated in Tunis, in addition to the Democratic Constitutional Assemblage party, which is chaired by the Tunisian president.