Registration for candidates seeking to stand for Tunisia's presidency will kick off on August 2, an electoral official said Sunday, as the country is arranging for a democratic transition after the death of president Beji Caid Essebsi earlier this week.
Essebsi, Tunisia's first democratically elected president, died on Thursday aged 92, almost five years after he took office.
Shortly after his death, parliamentary speaker Mohamed Ennaceur was sworn in as interim president for a maximum period of 90 days, during which a new president must be elected, according to the constitution.
The period for accepting applications from potential contenders will run for a week from August 2 to 9, said the deputy head of the election commission, Farouk Bouasker, on Sunday.
 The campaigning period has been cut from the usual 22 days to 13 days, Bouasker told the Tunisian state news agency TAP, without details. "The electoral commission will meet on Tuesday with political parties to inform them of details of the new election calendar," he added.
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