The Tunisian parliament began an extraordinary session on Friday to discuss amending the electoral law, just days before the presidential election on 6 October.

Ibrahim Boudarbala, speaker of the People’s Assembly, opened the extraordinary session to discuss the draft amendment to the electoral law, which will end with MPs voting to approve or reject it.

Thirty-four of the 154 MPs had recently submitted a draft amendment to the law that would make the Court of Appeal, rather than the Administrative Court, responsible for overseeing the electoral process and hearing disputes and appeals relating to it.

The session coincided with protests organised by dozens of activists near the parliament building against the amendments being discussed by MPs.