TUNIS, Tunisia — The addition of Ennahda President Rachid Ghannouchi to the Tunis 1 candidate list for the Oct. 6 parliamentary elections and the nomination of Ennahda Vice President Abdel Fattah Mourou to contest the Sept. 15 presidential elections represent a shift in political strategy for Tunisia's moderate Islamist movement. Both decisions were controversial within the movement, though ostensibly aimed at generating unity.

Ninety-eight of the 102 Ennahda Shura Council members approved nominating Mourou, who is also acting speaker of the People's Assembly, and he registered his candidacy Aug. 9. Four members abstained from the Aug. 7 vote. Ghannounchi's surprise candidacy, announced in late July, followed an extraordinary meeting of the party's Executive Council and sparked dissent by apparently stepping on the toes of Ennahda's Shura Council, which according to party rules holds the authority to nominate candidates.

Ennahda spokesman Emad al-Khemiri told Al-Monitor that the movement had decided it was time to contest the presidency after nine years of democratic transition. In the 2014 presidential elections, the movement had chosen to remain politically neutral and give its supporters the freedom to vote for presidential candidates unaffiliated with it due to the precariousness of the nascent democratic effort and because of Tunisians' concerns about the Islam-inspired movement. The movement was also apprehensive about possible negative reactions from certain countries to an Islamist president and the effect that might have on foreign relations and the economy.

Khemiri noted that there are divergent views within Ennahda about nominating a person from within or endorsing a consensual candidate from another party. Some who thought that it was time for Ennahda to nominate a candidate of its own argued that it would boost the movement's presence and profile in the state apparatus. Those holding the opposing view claimed that the current regional dynamics are not reassuring as far as Islamist movements in the Arab world are concerned. The issue, Khemiri said, was settled after the Shura Council voted to approve Mourou's nomination.