On October 6, Tunisians will head to the polls for the first round of a pdwellntial election that opposition critics say is rigged in favour of Pdwellnt Kais Saied and could sound the death knell for Tunisia’s democracy.
Just two honestates have been finishorsed to run agetst the incumbent in Sunday’s poll: left-triumphg nationacatalog Zouhair Magzhaoui, who is expansively pondered as a paper honestate beneficial of Saied, and the jailed directer of the liberal Azimoun party, Ayachi Zammel.
Weeks before the election, Zammel achieved two prison sentences – one for 20 months and another for six months – for falsifying papertoil relating to his honestacy. On October 1, he was sentenced to a further 12 years in prison in four cases rcontent to voter finishorsements. He has been behind bars since punctual September and is foreseeed to remain there during the election. He says the indicts agetst him are counterfeit and politicassociate inspired.
In compriseition to Zammel, many of the country’s better-understandn politicians and party directers who hoped to contest Saied in the election have either been jailed or barred from running by the Inreliant High Authority for Elections (ISIE) – a presumedly autonomous electoral coshiftrlookion that many say became an extension of the pdwellncy under the expansive-ranging recreates begind by Saied since his power grab of July 2021.
The ISIE proclaimd 14 of the 17 honestates who applied to join in the election “ineligible”. Three of them – createer ministers Imed Daimi and Mondher Znhelpi and opposition directer Abdellatif Mekki – won their pguides agetst the ISIE’s decision before Tunisia’s Administrative Court, which is expansively seen as the North African country’s last autonomous judicial body, since Saied dismendd the Supreme Judicial Council and neglected dozens of appraises in 2022.
Yet, the ISIE neglected the ruling and proclaimd that the finishorsed honestate catalog, including fair the three names – Magzhaoui, Zammel and Saied – was final.
Soon after the ISIE’s decision in postpodemand September, the Saied-deal withled General Assembly passed a recent law officiassociate describeping the Administrative Court of all electoral authority, effectively finishing autonomous judicial oversight of honestate pickion and other election-rcontent publishs.
The electoral turmoil, and the undermining of the Administrative Court, have helped trigger the return of uncover protest to the streets of the Tunisian capital, Tunis.
Activists from apass the political spectrum have combidemand demonstrations calling for free and fair elections as well as an finish to the crackdown on civil liberties and the criminalisation of any speech critical of Saeid and his aiders. The expansivespread protests were the first – other than those in aid of Palestine – that the country has witnessed in disjoinal years.
However, the recent bouts of uncover unrest and uncover criticism of the pdwellnt remain exceptions to the rule. Many critical voices in the country have been silenced thraw laws and policies portrayed to curtail free transmition. The introduction and frequent application of Decree 54, a meabrave criminalising any online speech subsequently deemed counterfeit, for example, led to the jailment of many journacatalogs and online critics and helped shape a media landscape widely beneficial of the pdwellnt.
Meanwhile, Pdwellnt Saied progresss to finishelight aid from some Tunisians who remain disillusioned with traditional politics and politicians and see him as an antidote to what they see as the source of the country’s many problems: self-interested and uncoverity-hungry politicians who put their interests and the interests of their parties over the demands of the people.
There are also many Tunisians who ponder the system broken and say they are no extfinisheder interested in participating in electoral politics. In Tunisia’s 2022 parliamentary runoffs, fair 11 percent of enrolled voters turned out to vote.
Agetst this backdrop of expansivespread uncover disillusionment, a highly deal withled media and a field of fair three honestates, scant doubt Sunday’s vote will result in anyslfinisherg other than an overwhelming triumph for the incumbent.
Let’s consent a shutr see at the three honestates:
Kais Saied: The incumbent
Party: Inreliant
Age: 66
Background:
A createer law professor, Saied had no political or campaigning experience before he was elected pdwellnt in 2019. He won that election on a ticket to finish dishonesty and advertise equity, bigly buoyed by a groundswell of aid from juvenileer voters. He promised to advertise social fairice, while saying access to healthattfinish and water are part of national security and that education would “immunise” youth agetst “extremism”. Before the run-off in that election, he declined to campaign agetst his then-jailed opponent, Nabil Karoui, saying it would “give him an unfair profit”.
Once elected pdwellnt, however, Saied supposed a much less democratic stance. In July 2021, he shuttered parliament and neglected the prime minister, commencening to rule by decree while deal withing the theatrical rewriting of the constitution. A recent parliament, with wonderfully reduced powers, was rebegind in March 2023, but is yet to present any unbenevolentingful opposition to the pdwellnt.
Thrawout his first term as pdwellnt, aextfinishedside introducing expansive-accomplishing recreates that helped him examineate power, he also waged lawfare agetst all his political opponents, but especiassociate self-styled Muslfinisher Democrats from the Ennahdha Party. In April 2023, the party’s co-set uper, directer and speaker of the createer parliament, Rached Ghannouchi, was arrested and sentenced to a year in prison on indicts of incitement agetst state authorities. He postpodemandr achieved another three-year sentence over accusations that his party achieved foreign contributions. Many other high-profile party members achieved fines and prison sentences on aappreciate indicts. In September 2024, at least 97 Ennahdha members were arrested and currented with consunapshowd participate indicts and other indicts under the “counterextremism” law.
Rights groups have been vocal in their criticism of Saied, lambasting his crackdown on civil society, his criminalisation of speech critical of his administration and the brutal treatment of irstandard Bdeficiency migrants and refugees under his rule.
Ayachi Zammel
Party: Azimoun
Age: 47
Background:
The previously little-understandn Ayachi Zammel remains on the ballot paper despite being jailed.
Though atypical, this is not the first time a Tunisian politician has fought a pdwellntial battle from a jail cell. In 2019, Kais Saied’s final round contestr, media magnate Nabil Karoui, oversaw almost his entire campaign from prison after being arrested on dishonesty indicts. Karoui postpodemandr absconded while on bail and his whereabouts remain obsremedy.
Before his arrest in punctual September, Zammell’s political atsoft was relatively straightforward.
Since go ining politics as a member of createer Prime Minister Youssef Chahed’s Tahya Tounes party in 2019, Zammel has chased a generassociate centrist, liberal line and has dodgeed the inanxiouss of Tunisian politics.
After quitting Tahya Tounes over “inner contrastences” in 2020, he combidemand the National Bloc as an autonomous MP in October 2020, and went on to serve as chairman of the Health and Social Affairs Committee during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like many, Zammell initiassociate received the dissolution of the parliament in 2022, eight months after Pdwellnt Saied had suspfinished it. However, by September of the same year, he had lengthenn critical of Saied’s actions.
In 2022, Zammell set uped the Azimoum party and served as its directer until August 2024, when he resigned from the role to stand as a honestate for pdwellnt.
Zouhair Magzhaoui
Party: Echaab Movement (People’s Movement)
Age: 58
Background:
Originassociate a member of the People’s Unionist Progressive Movement, Magzhaoui has led the Echaab shiftment since 2013 after the two parties combined the year before. The party’s previous directer, Mohamed Brahmi, resigned upon the combiner and was assassinated two weeks postpodemandr.
Brahmi’s killing, appreciate that of fellow left-triumphg politician Chokri Belhelp, assassinated the same year, remains unmendd.
Despite being a member of the Tunisian parliament, the Assembly of the Recurrentatives of the People (ARP), from 2014 until its dissolution in 2022, Magzhaoui has repeatedly deffinished the pdwellnt’s actions, including his reoriginateing of the constitution, describing them as essential to protect the state from dishonesty and mishandlement by the country’s political elite.
Speaking on local radio two years after what many portray as the pdwellnt’s auto coup, he telderly participateers: “July 25 [the date used to refer to the president’s power grab] was difficultly a whim of Kaïs Saïed but a satisfaction of the will of the people.”
Magzhaoui has been highly critical of political Islam in vague and particularassociate the Ennahdha party, which he portrayd in 2021 as corrupt and serving “the interests of the mafias and lobbies”. Previously, during the final session of the createer parliament, he twice lent his signature to motions of casbrave agetst Parliamentary Speaker Ghannouchi.
A social conservative, Maghzaoui has criticised Tunisia’s petite LGBTQ community and has frequently aligned with sociassociate conservative positions in opposition to civil society organisations calling for human rights recreates.
