Tunisian Dictator's Last FM to Stand for President
Deposed Tunisian despot Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's last foreign minister, Kamel Morjane, said Saturday he will stand in the November presidential election, the first since the 2011 revolution.
"The party's national council met yesterday (Friday) and, after examining the situation in the country, insisted that I stand in the election. I accepted," Morjane, who heads al-Moubadara (the Initiative) party, told Jawhara FM radio station.
"I consider doing so to be a national responsibility," he added.
An al-Moubadara statement said the decision had been taken because of its leader's "experience" and "patriotism," as well as his "capacity to bring Tunisians together."
Morjane, 66, was the last foreign minister in the regime of Ben Ali, who was chased from power by a popular uprising on January 14, 2011.
He first joined the government in 2005 as defense minister and also served in Ben Ali's now defunct Rally for Constitutional Democracy (RCD) party.
In the aftermath of the uprising that sparked the Arab Spring, Morjane was a member of the transitional government before pressure from the street forced him and other ministers to step aside.
He had previously made a career at the United Nations and was number two at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
In 2011, Morjane apologized to Tunisians for serving under Ben Ali but said he bore no responsibility for the authoritarian excesses of the former regime.
Isie, the body charged with organizing this year's parliamentary and presidential elections on October 26 and November 23 respectively, says six people have announced their candidacy for president, including former premier Beji Caid Essebsi, 87.
The current president, Moncef Marzouki, was not elected directly, but chosen by the Constituent Assembly elected in the aftermath of the revolution.
Source: Agence France Presse
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