On October 6, Tunisians will participate within the first spherical of presidential elections, which opposition critics say is rigged in favor of President Kais Saied and will sound the dying knell for Tunisian democracy.
Solely two candidates have been authorised to run in opposition to the sitting president in Sunday’s polls: left-wing nationalist Zouhair Magzhaoui and jailed liberal Azmoun occasion chief Ayaqi Ayachi Zammel, the previous is broadly thought-about to be the paper candidate supporting Saied.
Weeks earlier than the election, Zamel was sentenced to 2 jail sentences – one to twenty months and the opposite to 6 months – for falsifying paperwork associated to his candidacy. On October 1, he was sentenced to an extra 12 years in jail for 4 instances associated to voter assist. He has been in jail since early September and is anticipated to stay there throughout the election interval. He mentioned the fees in opposition to him have been false and politically motivated.
Along with Zamel, many distinguished politicians and occasion leaders within the nation who hoped to oppose Saied within the elections have both been jailed or banned from working by the Impartial Greater Electoral Authority (ISIE). Since then, Sayyid has turn out to be an extension of his presidential time period beneath the wide-ranging reforms launched by Saied.
ISIE declared 14 of the 17 candidates who utilized to run within the election “ineligible”. Three of them – former ministers Imed Daimi and Mondher Znaidi and opposition chief Abdellatif Mekki – have been Tunisia’s Administrative Court docket appealed ISIE’s resolution and received.
Nonetheless, ISIE overturned this ruling and declared the authorised record of candidates, which included solely the names Maghzawi, Zamel and Saied, as remaining.
Shortly after ISIE’s resolution in late September, the Saied-controlled Basic Meeting handed a brand new legislation formally stripping the executive courts of all electoral rights, successfully ending unbiased judicial oversight of candidate choice and different election-related points.
Electoral turmoil and the destruction of the executive court docket have sparked renewed public protests on the streets of Tunisia’s capital, Tunis.
Activists from throughout the political spectrum have joined the demonstrations, calling totally free and honest elections, an finish to the crackdown on civil liberties and the criminalization of any criticism of Saied and his supporters. Other than pro-Palestinian protests, these have been the primary large-scale protests within the nation in years.
Nonetheless, current public unrest and public criticism of the president stay exceptions. Many essential voices within the nation are silenced by legal guidelines and insurance policies designed to restrict free speech. For instance, the introduction and frequent enforcement of Legislation 54, which criminalized any on-line speech that was subsequently deemed false, led to the imprisonment of many journalists and on-line critics and helped form a media panorama that was broadly supportive of the president.
On the similar time, President Saied continues to benefit from the assist of some Tunisians who stay disillusioned with conventional politics and politicians and see him as an antidote to the foundation of lots of the nation’s issues: self-serving, attention-hungry politicians who will Put your individual pursuits first.
There are additionally many Tunisians who imagine the system is damaged and say they’re not all in favour of taking part in electoral politics. In Tunisia’s 2022 parliamentary runoff elections, solely 11% of registered voters voted.
Towards a backdrop of widespread public disillusionment, a extremely managed media and solely three candidates, few doubted that Sunday’s vote would end in one thing aside from a landslide victory for the incumbent.
Let’s take a more in-depth have a look at these three candidates:
Keith Saied: Present
Political occasion: unbiased
Age: 66
background:
Stated, a former legislation professor, had no political or marketing campaign expertise earlier than being elected president in 2019. He pledged to advertise social justice whereas saying entry to well being care and water was a part of nationwide safety and that training would “immune” younger folks in opposition to “extremism”. Earlier than that election runoff, he refused to marketing campaign in opposition to his then-jailed opponent Nabil Karoui, saying it could “give him an unfair benefit”.
As soon as elected president, nevertheless, Saied adopted a much less democratic stance. In July 2021, he shut down parliament and fired the prime minister, starting to rule by decree whereas overseeing a dramatic rewrite of the structure. A brand new parliament with considerably lowered powers was re-established in March 2023, however has but to lift any significant opposition to the president.
Throughout his first time period as president, along with pursuing wide-ranging reforms to assist him consolidate energy, he launched authorized proceedings in opposition to all political opponents, particularly self-styled Muslim Democrats from the Ennahda Get together. In April 2023, the occasion’s co-founder, chief and former speaker Rached Ghannouchi was arrested and sentenced to 1 yr in jail for inciting state authorities. He was later sentenced to a different three years in jail over accusations that his occasion accepted international donations. Many different distinguished occasion members have been fined and jailed on related costs. In September 2024, at the least 97 Ennahda members have been arrested and charged with conspiracy and different costs beneath “anti-terrorism” legal guidelines.
Rights teams have been outspoken critics of Saied, lambasting his crackdown on civil society, the criminalization of speech essential of his authorities and the brutal therapy of irregular black migrants and refugees beneath his rule.
Ayaji Zamel
Political Get together: Azmon
Age: 47
background:
Ayachi Zammel, beforehand little identified, seems on the poll regardless of being imprisoned.
Whereas uncommon, this isn’t the primary time Tunisian politicians have fought a presidential battle from behind bars. In 2019, Kais Saied’s last-round challenger, media mogul Nabil Karoui, oversaw just about his complete marketing campaign from jail after being detained on corruption costs. Karoui later absconded whereas on bail and his whereabouts are nonetheless unknown.
Till his arrest in early September, Zamel’s political profession was comparatively easy.
Since coming into politics in 2019 as a member of former Prime Minister Youssef Chahed’s Tahya Tounes occasion, Zamel has adopted a centrist, liberal path and averted the extremes of Tunisian politics.
He give up the submit of Tahya Tounes in 2020 as a result of “inside disagreements” earlier than becoming a member of the Nationwide Group as an unbiased MP in October 2020 and has continued on as Well being and Social Affairs throughout the COVID-19 pandemic Committee Chairman.
Like many, Zamel initially welcomed the dissolution of parliament in 2022, eight months after President Saied suspended it. Nonetheless, by September of the identical yr, he criticized Stated’s conduct.
In 2022, Zamel based the Azimoum Get together and served as its chief till resigning in August 2024 to run as a presidential candidate.
Zuhair Magzawi
Political Get together: Echaab Motion (Individuals’s Motion)
Age: 58
background:
Magzhawi was initially a member of the Awami League Progressive Motion and has led the Echab motion since 2013 following the merger of the 2 events. The occasion’s former chief, Mohamed Brahmi, resigned after the merger and was assassinated two weeks later.
Like left-wing politician Chokri Belaid, who was assassinated the identical yr, Brami’s assassination stays unsolved.
Though Magzawi was a member of Tunisia’s parliament, the Meeting of Individuals’s Representatives (ARP), from 2014 till its dissolution in 2022, he has repeatedly defended the president’s actions, together with redrafting the structure, saying they have been needed to guard him. Conduct.
Two years after what many referred to as a presidential automobile coup, he spoke on native radio, telling listeners: “July 25 [the date used to refer to the president’s power grab] This was not the whim of Kais Stated, however the achievement of the need of the folks.
Maghzawi has been extremely essential of political Islam, notably the Ennahda occasion, which he described in 2021 as corrupt and serving “the pursuits of the mafia and foyer teams.” Beforehand, he had twice signed motions of censure in opposition to Speaker Ghannouchi over the last session of the previous parliament.
Magzawi is a social conservative who has criticized Tunisia’s small LGBTQ group and has usually aligned himself with social conservatives and opposed civil society teams calling for human rights reforms.
