Despite the fact that his running for presidential elections in Tunisia set a precedent in the country's history, and regardless of his promise to decriminalize homosexuality if he wins, the LGBT community rejoiced after Mounir Baatour's candidacy was rejected. Baatour is the president of Shams, an LGBT organization advocating for the rights and freedoms of sexual minorities.
A coalition of human rights organizations & activists united to express in a statement disappointment over Baatour’s nomination, objecting to how he was being depicted to the public in Tunisia and abroad as a "representative" of the LGBT community and spokesperson as they see him “not only as a threat but also a huge danger for our community”.
Baatour’s declaration that he intended to run for President a few months ago caused an uproar both in Tunisia and abroad though he dismissed the idea that his candidacy was “just a media stunt”.
On 8 August Baatour presented his papers for candidacy after receiving 19,565 signatures necessary for nomination but on 14 August when the Independent High Electoral Commission announced the 26 candidates that had been accepted for the early presidential elections scheduled for 15 September, Batour’s was one of 71 rejected candidates.
The commission Spokeswoman, Hasna Ben Sulaiman, told AFP that Baatour’s nomination was rejected due to his failure to gather 10,000 registered voters’ signatures, to which he retorted that the reasons for the rejection were “unclear and unexplained”.
After failing to qualify, human rights organizations and associations concerned with the LGBT community in Tunisia renewed their opposition to Baatour and his association as a "threat to Tunisian society".
"We, the activists and organizations undersigned, confirm through this petition that we do not support Mr. Mounir Baatour's candidacy for the Tunisian presidential elections of 2019." This statement included the organizations 'Damj "Mawjoudin" "Alwani" "Mouja" "Gayday Magazine" "Honna", "Collectif Chaml" ”Association pour la promotion du droit à la différence" (ADD) and others.
"Baatour does not in any way represent Queer society or our movement in Tunisia, we not only consider Baatour a threat to our community bust also a danger." the organizations said in a statement. Read more via Raseef22
LGBT Tunisia: Rift over Israel, tactics, morals of gay candidate
Eleven Tunisian LGBT rights groups have attacked gay presidential candidate Mounir Baatour and his LGBT association, Shams, criticizing them for lack of hostility to Israel, for alleged sexual abuse, and for their tactic of “outing” politicians and others.
The continent-wide LGBT rights organization Pan-Africa ILGA responded to the dispute by urging activists in the Middle East / North Africa (MENA) region to make sure that the accusations against Baatour are based on firm evidence:
Mounir Baatour is directly linked to [our organization]. Shams, which was founded in 2015, is a registered member of Pan-Africa ILGA. …
However, being an organization that promotes equality for all and condemns every form of discrimination, irrespective of who the perpetrator may be, we call on our members in the MENA region to ensure that there is concrete evidence to back the allegations against Baatour.
Then, on our part, we will do the needful.