In Tunisia, 26 presidential candidates approved to run next month: electoral commission

Tunisia’s electoral commission has approved some 26 candidates, including two women, to run for president next month, it announced on Wednesday. Some 71 other applicants were denied a spot on the ballot.

File photo of the first round of Tunisia's presidential elections, 23 November 2014. Les Tunisians are going back to the polls on 15 September to pick their president. Nicolas Fauqué/Corbis via Getty

Tunisians will go to the polls on 15 September after the death last month of 92-year-old president Beji Caid Essebsi. He was the first democratically-elected president after Moncef Marzouki became transitional president after the uprising in 2011.

A number of notable candidates are vying for top office, including Marzouki, in addition to Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and Defence Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi.

Former prime minister Medhi Jomaa, moderate Ennahda Islamist party vice president Abdel Fattah Mourou, and private Nessma TV station owner Nabil Karoui are also joining the race.

The two women candidates include Salmi Loumi, former tourism minister, and Abir Moussi, ardent supporter of deposed Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.