Tunisian President Kais Saied won a sweeping victory in the country’s election on Monday, securing 90.7% of the vote and solidifying his grip on power after a contentious first term. This election comes after a presidency marked by the imprisonment of opponents and sweeping institutional changes that have expanded Saied’s authority.
Tunisia’s Independent High Authority for Elections confirmed Saied’s overwhelming victory, which followed exit polls indicating his insurmountable lead. Saied, a 66-year-old populist, used his victory speech to pledge the removal of corrupt figures from the country. “We’re going to cleanse the country of all the corrupt and schemers,” he declared.
However, critics are alarmed by the result. Sghayer Zakraoui, a law professor at the University of Tunis, likened Saied’s rule to the era of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who governed Tunisia for over two decades before being ousted during the 2011 Arab Spring protests. Zakraoui warned that the country was returning to the “absolute power of a single man.”
Saied’s closest competitor, businessman Ayachi Zammel, garnered just 7.4% of the vote. Zammel spent much of the campaign in prison, facing multiple charges related to election offenses. Despite Saied’s significant margin of victory, voter turnout was remarkably low, with only 28.8% of eligible voters participating. This is a sharp decline compared to Tunisia’s previous post-Arab Spring elections, suggesting widespread apathy.
Many of Saied’s key opponents have been imprisoned since 2022 and were prevented from running in the election, while opposition parties boycotted the race, denouncing it as a sham. Tarek Megerisi, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, commented on the outcome, stating that Saied would “re-enter office undermined rather than empowered by these elections.”
Tunisia, once hailed as the birthplace of the Arab Spring and a beacon of hope for multiparty democracy in the region, has seen its political climate deteriorate. In 2011, protesters demanded “bread, freedom, and dignity,” toppling Ben Ali’s regime and setting the stage for a new constitution, civil society gains, and even a Nobel Peace Prize for the country’s political compromises. However, economic instability and political infighting undermined these advances.
Saied, originally a political outsider, was first elected in 2019 on a platform of anti-corruption and reform. In 2021, he declared a state of emergency, suspended parliament, and rewrote the constitution to centralize power in the presidency, actions widely seen by critics as a coup.
International concerns have mounted as Saied’s government has arrested numerous opponents, journalists, activists, and civil society leaders. The European Union, which partners with Tunisia to address Mediterranean migration, has expressed apprehension over the integrity of Tunisia’s electoral process.
European Commission spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said the EU had “taken note of the position expressed by many Tunisian social and political actors regarding the integrity of the electoral process.”
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