Tunisian presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi barred from contesting elections for life

Associated Press

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — A Tunisian court has sentenced a presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi to eight months in prison and banned him from contesting elections for life, in the latest move to stifle opponents of President Kais Saied in the upcoming October election which critics call a sham. The court found Mraihi guilty of vote-buying during the 2019 election, adding him to the list of government critics prosecuted for alleged wrongdoing in that contest. Mraihi is the latest of a wave of candidates to face charges ahead of the election, which opposition members have criticized as a sham due to the increasingly authoritarian political conditions in Tunisia.