August 26, 2009--President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali announced on Wednesday his candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections in Tunisia, due to be held on October 25, 2009.

President Ben Ali made his announcement at the Constitutional Council in Tunis.

In his address, President Ben Ali said that “I have just submitted my candidacy for President out of a sense of duty and to renew my pledge to you.”

He also expressed his commitment that Tunisia “will remain for ever a country of diligent effort, independent judgement, moderation and middle course action, a country of dialogue, tolerance, solidarity and concord.”

Here is the full text of the address:

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Fellow Citizens,

By the grace of God and in accordance with the Constitution, I have just submitted my candidacy for President out of a sense of duty and to renew my pledge to you.

You who have given me complete support and backing. You who have expressed to me, with boundless enthusiasm and unswerving loyalty, your determination that we should continue together our successful march toward the future.

For that reason, I am renewing my pledge with you as a consecration of the confidence that you have bestowed upon me since the Change of November 7, 1987.

It gives me pleasure to express my deep satisfaction with, and great pride in, this invaluable and mutual confidence, and to express, on this occasion, my sincere thanks:

• to the political parties, professional organizations and components of civil society;
• to the education, vocational training, higher education and scientific research community;
• to the people of culture, arts, information and communication;
• to the workers, farmers, industrialists, merchants and business people in general;
• to the Tunisian women, a typical example of modernity and progress in our society;
• to our youth who are always eager for science and action;
• to our sportspeople of all individual and collective fields of specialization, who have distinguished themselves in the various regional and international championships;
• to Tunisian communities abroad which are deeply attached to their homeland.

I remain committed to my pledge to you all.

I remain committed with you to accomplishing further successes and achievements.

I remain committed with you to ensuring the greatest possible level of development and growth for all categories, regions and generations.

I remain committed with you to working diligently in order to promote our country in the various regional groupings and international institutions.

I have always counted on our people’s awareness and maturity as well as on their intelligence and loyalty in going through each of the previous phases. I count on them today in this phase in taking further decisive steps toward prosperity and invulnerability.

We will ensure that Tunisia will remain, for ever, a country of diligent effort, independent judgement, moderation and middle course action; a country of dialogue, tolerance, solidarity and concord, that hosts all its sons and daughters at home and abroad, cares for them and protects them, defends their rights, and provides for them security and decent living.

It will indeed be one of our most pressing duties together in the next phase, to show greater determination and more persistence in serving our country, maximizing its gains, defending its interests and making sacrifices for its sake, “…so after that let the strivers strive ” (The Holy Koran, 83-26).