The expected re-election of Tunisian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, already in power for 17 years, does not signal the return to president-for-life rule but is needed for the country's prosperity, his party chief said.
Elections, contested by Ben Ali and three other candidates from tiny legal parties, are held on October 24 in a North African country which has won praise from the United States for participating in Washington's war on terrorism.
Two other legal opposition parties, Democratic Progressive Party and Democratic Forum for Labour and Freedom, are calling on Tunisians to boycott the vote, saying it would open the way for another president for life.
"Those who allege there would be presidency-for-life rule are talking nonsense because the revised constitution sets an age limit (of 75 years) for a presidential candidate," said Ali Chaouch, secretary general of the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) party.
Ben Ali, now 68, took over in 1987 when president-for-life Habib Bourguiba, the founder of modern Tunisia, was declared senile and incapable of ruling by a team of doctors.
He stood for election as the sole candidate in 1989 and 1994 and was re-elected in 1999 with 99.5 percent of the popular vote despite the introduction of multi-party politics. Human rights groups called the vote a sham.
A 2002 referendum on a new constitution allowing Ben Ali to theoretically stay in power until 2014 if he also won the next poll, and which gave him immunity from prosecution for life, was approved by 99 percent of votes.
Critics flatly say Tunisia is a police state with a veneer of formal democracy, and argue that most Tunisians only hear about opposition figures when they praise Ben Ali's leadership.
The country's only independent human rights group accuses the government of routinely beating dissidents and rights campaigners and of muzzling the press.
Most Tunisians, including Ben Ali's opponents, agree the country's political future looked grim towards the end of Bourguiba's rule and economic and social conditions have improved in a region of turmoil.
"Ben Ali moved swiftly to turn things around. He gradually liberalised the economy from the shackles of the state domination and restored a state of law safeguarding the fundamental human rights of Tunisians," Chaouch said.
Women's rights are among the most advanced in the Arab world, literacy is widespread and the middle-class is growing.
Gross domestic product jumped to 35.1 billion dinars ($28.13 billion) this year from 7.16 billion dinars 17 years ago. Life expectancy reached 73.2 years in 2004 from 67 in 1987 and per capita income rose from 960 dinars to 3,540 dinars this year, according to government data.