On 14 August, the Independent Electoral Body of Tunisia (ISIE) accepted 26 out of the 96 candidatures presented for the next presidential elections, scheduled for 15 September. The excluded candidates have time to appeal the decision until the end of August, so that the final number could change. Among the candidates, there is the Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, leader of the recently born liberal and secular party Tahya Tunis. The secular front will thus run fragmented in the next elections, since Defence Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi will also participate under the support of Nidaa Tounes. For the first time, the moderate Islamist party Ennahda will run for the presidency as well, with the vice president of the party, Abdel Fattah Mourou, as candidate. He is considered the leader of the moderate faction of the party, which intends to distance itself from the Muslim Brotherhood. Beside the biggest parties’ candidatures, there are also some independent personalities, such as the businessman Nabil Karoui, who has been recently arrested for money laundering, and the former president Moncef Marzouki, leader of the “Another Tunisia” coalition. After a meeting with the EU Ambassador to Tunisia Patrice Bergamini, the President of ISIE, Nabil Baffoun, announced that a team of 10 electoral analysts is based in Tunis since 23 August in the framework of the EU Election Observation Mission.