'We will beat political money,' insists Marzouki

Presidential candidate Moncef Marzouki said on Friday that he would win over those who consider money to be everything in politics, Anadolu news agency has reported. Speaking at the end of his campaign, Marzouki, 69, told his supporters in Tunis he will beat “political money” and that his main opponent from the Nidaa Tunis Party has to know that building a stable country and a political system is based on values and morals. “This man has become outdated,” he said of Beji Caid El-Sebsi. “He is just a remnant of past history.”

Observers and many ordinary Tunisians accuse Nidaa Tunis, established by El-Sebsi, of including many of the senior officials of the ousted regime of Zain Al-Abideen Bin-Ali. Although he was the speaker of the final parliament under the discredited regime, El-Sebsi rejects such accusations and claims that all the leaders of his party have a clear past; not one was charged with corruption.

Many opposition leaders have warned that, at 88 years-old, El-Sebsi would not be able to run the country. The Nidaa Tunis leader, however, insists that he is a state-man and is able to run the country based on his previous experience.