Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki announced Saturday he will stand for re-election in November, in a key vote almost four years after a revolt that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki announced Saturday he will stand for re-election in November, in a key vote almost four years after a revolt that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.

The polls, along with parliamentary elections in October, are seen as the final step in Tunisia's transition after more than two decades under strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who was toppled in 2011.

The moderate Islamist party Ennahda won Tunisia's first post-Ben Ali election the same year.

Marzouki, a fierce opponent of Ben Ali and a secular ally of Ennahda, was chosen as president in December 2011 in a vote in the National Constituent Assembly.

The 69-year-old kicked off his re-election campaign with an attack on "dirty money" in politics.

"My candidacy is an example of transparency," he said. "We must not allow corruption in this first democratic experience," he said after registering for the November 23 vote.

Critics often accuse cronies of Ben Ali's former autocratic regime of seeking to derail the reform process.

Marzouki faces a number of rival candidates including National Assembly speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar, a former central bank chief, and one-time premier Beji Caid Essebsi.

Essebsi, 87, earlier this month accused "infiltrators" in his party who oppose his candidacy of wanting to kill him, prompting an inquiry by prosecutors.