TUNIS, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The number of appeals received by Tunisian Administrative Court in connection with the preliminary results of the first round of Tunisia's presidential election rose to six, a judicial official told Xinhua on Thursday evening.
"The new appeals were submitted to the court by the lawyers of candidates Youssef Chahed, Hatem Boulbiyar and Neji Jalloul," Imad Ghabri, head of court's communication and information unit, told Xinhua.
According to the preliminary results of this presidential election, Chahed, current prime minister, received 7.4 percent of all the votes, coming in the fifth place, and Jalloul got 0.2 percent, 21st, while Boulbiyar ranked 26th with 0.1 percent.
Earlier, the official informed that three appeals were submitted to the court by the lawyers of candidates Abdelkarim Zbidi, Slim Riahi and Seifeddine Makhlouf.
The results of this election showed that Zbidi came fourth after independent candidate Kais Saied, leader of Heart of Tunisia party Nabil Karoui and Islamist candidate Abdelfattah Mourou, current interim speaker of parliament.
Makhlouf ranked 10th with 4 percent of the votes while Riahi ranked 25th with 0.1 percent.
In light of these appeals, the second round of the presidential election will not take place on Sept. 29, as previously announced, and is likely to be postponed to Oct. 13.
Official results released on Tuesday by the Independent High Authority for Elections showed Saied leading the first round of Tunisia's early presidential election with 18.4 percent of the votes, while Karoui followed with 15.58 percent.
