TUNIS, Tunisia

Tunisian President Kais Saied on Friday said he will run for a second term in the Oct. 6 presidential election. 

"I officially announce my candidacy for the presidential election on Oct. 6 to continue the struggle of national liberation," Saied, who first won in 2019, said in a televised speech published on his Facebook page.

The North African country has been in the grip of a deep political crisis since 2021, when Saied deposed the government, dissolved parliament and began ruling by decree.

The main opposition coalition National Salvation Front says it would boycott the election due to a lack of competition and imprisonment of political opponents.

The opposition boycotted the December 2022 parliamentary elections, as well as the local municipal elections held last December and early this year.

Earlier in the day, a court jailed Lotfi Mraihi, an opposition party leader and a potential presidential election candidate, to eight months in prison on charges of vote buying, and banned him from contesting elections for life.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar