Foreign election monitors concerned by detention of Tunisian candidate

Tunisian presidential candidate Nabil Karoui casts his vote at a polling station during a second round runoff of a presidential election in Tunis, Tunisia October 13, 2019. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

TUNIS (Reuters) - The holding of Tunisian presidential candidate Nabil Karoui in pre-trial detention for weeks before Sunday's election has raised concern about the vote despite his release on Wednesday, a foreign monitoring team in Tunisia said on Sunday.

"The detention of one of the presidential candidates and his inability to campaign on a level playing field gives us grounds for concern," Les Campbell, a joint leader of the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute observer mission in Tunisia, said by phone.