| Tunisia's opposition Union of Democratic Unionists (UDU) party has called on its members to vote for long-time President Zain al-Abidin Bin Ali in next month's election, the official TAP news agency said Saturday. The UDU was backing Bin Ali because it felt the incumbent, who is running for a fourth, five-year term on 24 October, will continue "to drive the democratic process and realise the objectives of economic and social development," said UDU secretary-general Ahmad Inubli. The UDU will field candidates in the legislative vote that will be held on the same day as the presidential polls. Inubli was recently elected head of the UDU after his predecessor, Abd al-Rahman Tlili, was sentenced to nine months in jail for abuse of power while in public office. Bin Ali announced on 3 September that he will stand again in the October elections. He is able to do so after a constitutional amendment approved by 99% of the voters in a referendum in May last year abolished a three-term limit on presidential mandates. |