TUNIS- Tunisia's electoral commission said on Wednesday it had approved 26 candidates including two women for next month's presidential election, rejecting 71 other applicants.

The Sept. 15 vote follows the death at age 92 last month of Beji Caid Essebsi, the first president to be democratically elected in Tunisia after the popular uprising of 2011.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara Editing by Peter Graff) ((tarek.amara@thomsonreuters.com;))