The main opposition alliance in Tunisia has said its members including the largest political party Ennahda would boycott December polls to replace a parliament dissolved by President Kais Saied.
The vote is set for nearly a year and a half after Saied suspended the Ennahda-dominated assembly and sacked the government, later pushing through a constitution enshrining his rule.
“The National Salvation Front has definitively decided to boycott the upcoming elections,” said Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, head of the front which is made up of parties and movements opposed to Saied.
He said the move was in response to an electoral law written “by Saied alone”, part of a “coup against constitutional legitimacy”.
Saied’s power grab was welcomed by a section of Tunisians tired of what they saw as a fractious and corrupt system established after the 2011 revolution.
But opposition forces say his moves, culminating in a new constitution confirmed by a widely boycotted July referendum, amount to a return to autocracy.