PREVIEW
Citizens have protested against the autocracy and chronic economic mismanagement by staying away from the polling stations
Kaïs Saïed will get a second term as Tunisia’s president after a decisive win in the elections on 6 October. Saïed won 90.7% of the vote on a 28.8% turnout according to the electoral commission. Just two other candidates were allowed to stand. One, businessman Ayachi Zammel, considered the only serious threat to Saïed’s re-election, was jailed for 12 years last month.
A handful of other candidates from Tunisia’s main parties were banned from standing (AC Vol 65 No 16, After arresting his rivals, Saïed will run for another presidential term & Dispatches 16/7/24, Saïed clears the field of challengers). In his first post-election remarks, Saïed told state television that his re-election was ‘a continuation of the revolution,’ adding that he would ‘build and will cleanse the country of the corrupt, traitors and conspirators.’
Crackdowns and arrests of civil society and opposition leaders, that have blighted Tunisian politics since Saïed centralised power by sacking the government and parliament in 2021, depressed participation. Turnout on Sunday was half what it was in the runoff round of the 2019 presidential election.
A referendum on the constitution passed with a turnout of only 30%, while a January 2023 runoff for the new, nearly powerless, parliament he created with that constitution had turnout of only 11%.
Despite the latest crackdowns on political freedom and Saïed’s opponents, there is little chance of significant international censure. The European Commission, which signed a €1 billion ‘cash for migrant control’ deal with Saïed last year, is unlikely to row back on its support for Saïed. It offered a guarded response to the exit polls on 7 October.
A European Commission spokesman told journalists that the EU had taken note of the low turnout and ‘taken good note of the comments made by stakeholders about the electoral process and also the measures that might impinge and affect the credibility [of the polls] and the changes to the electoral law just a few days before’.
We stand with the people of Tunisia are listening to their needs when it comes to the basic principles of democracy,’ he added.
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