Kais Saied seeks new presidential time period with one candidate in jail

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied, seen as a saviour by supporters and an autocrat by critics, is working for re-election on Sunday in a vote that he’s all however sure to win.

Greater than a dozen politicians had hoped to problem him, however the electoral fee accredited solely two extra names for the poll paper.

And a type of, Ayachi Zammel, was sentenced to 12 years in jail for falsifying paperwork simply 5 days earlier than the ballot.

Tunisia was the place the Arab Spring, a sequence of uprisings in opposition to autocratic rulers in North Africa and the Center East, started in late 2010. The nation was seen as a beacon of democracy for the Arab world.

However since President Saied was elected on a wave of optimism in 2019, the 66-year-old has suspended parliament, rewritten the structure and concentrated energy into his fingers.

That is Tunisia’s third presidential election since Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown in 2011. He had been in energy for over twenty years earlier than he was compelled to flee to Saudi Arabia following months of large protests.

Sarah Yerkes, a senior fellow on the Carnegie Endowment for Worldwide Peace with an experience within the Center East, informed the BBC, that the president had “manipulated the political and legal situation to such an extent that there is no contest – he is the only viable candidate”.

There have been no marketing campaign rallies or public debates, and almost all of the marketing campaign posters within the streets have been of the president.

Tunisia’s election was “really a referendum on Kais Saied”, Ms Yerkes added.

The North African nation’s largest opposition occasion, Ennahda, stated its senior members had been arrested at a degree it had not seen earlier than.

New York-based group Human Rights Watch reported that the authorities had excluded eight different potential candidates from the election by means of prosecution and imprisonment.

In latest weeks, folks have taken to the streets of the capital, Tunis, to protest in opposition to President Saied and demand free-and-fair elections.

Though Zammel, who heads the small liberal Azimoun occasion, was jailed for falsifying voter signatures on his candidacy paperwork, his identify will nonetheless seem on the poll paper.

He has denied the fees, the Reuters information company reviews.

The opposite candidate, former lawmaker Zouhair Maghzaoui, had been a supporter of the president’s 2021 energy seize however later turned a critic.

“Tunisian authorities are waging a clear pre-election assault on the pillars of human rights,” said Agnès Callamard, the secretary-general of rights group Amnesty International.

Ms Yerkes told the BBC that Tunisia’s leader had “steadily dismantled a decade-worth of democratic progress”.

But he was initially seen in a very different light.

When Saied, an acclaimed legal scholar, won more than 70% of the presidential vote in 2019, he promised “a new Tunisia”.

He represented “the non-elite in Tunisia” and tried “to be a voice for the extra marginalised populations”, said Ms Yerkes.

A rejuvenated economy and curbing corruption were a few of the promises he made after his victory.

When asked what he would do about the economy, he told a local newspaper, he would “empower the folks with instruments”. He did not specify what these tools would be.

Nicknamed “the professor”, he had immense support, especially among young people disillusioned by the endless bickering of the political classes.

But in 2021, he initiated what experts describe as a “self-coup” when he dismissed parliament and assumed all executive power.

He justified his actions by saying he needed new powers to break the cycle of political paralysis and economic decay.

That same year he denied having any autocratic aspirations in an interview with the New York Times when he quoted the former French President Charles de Gaulle saying: “‘Why do you suppose that, at 67, I’d begin a profession as a dictator?’”

Below Saied’s rule, Tunisia has dropped from 53rd place to 82nd on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s democracy index, which measures political freedoms and pluralism.

“He has already returned Tunisia to autocracy,” stated Ms Yerkes.

Along with Tunisia’s faltering democracy, the shortage of jobs is one other sizzling matter. Unemployment is at 16%, in line with the World Financial institution.

The nation’s troubled financial system has compelled many younger folks to to migrate.

Tunisia is a key departure level for migrants who wish to attain Europe.

UN figures present that not less than 12,000 migrants who landed on Italy’s shores final yr left from Tunisia.

Fearing an extra inflow of migrants, the European Union made a take care of Tunisia, giving the nation $118m (£90m) to cease smuggling, strengthen borders and return migrants.

Saied has additionally taken a populist method to stoke assist and blamed migrants for the nation’s financial issues.

He accused black sub-Saharan migrants of partaking in a “plot” to vary the nation’s demographic profile, blaming “traitors who are working for foreign countries”.

This led to a spate of racist assaults in opposition to black folks residing in Tunisia.

Whereas his rhetoric has garnered him some assist, there are those that have been turned off by the remarks.

Teams within the nation organised anti-racist protests in response to his feedback.

He has tried to shift blame however has “shown no signs that he can turn the economy around”, stated Ms Yerkes.

In his first electoral assertion, printed simply after official campaigning started, Saied pledged to strengthen well being providers, transport and social safety after many years of efforts to “eliminate” public establishments.

Saied’s consolidation of energy has led to an apathetic temper forward of the elections.

Final yr, solely 11% of the citizens turned as much as vote for brand spanking new members of parliament.

It’s “likely that the turnout this time around will be similarly abysmal”, stated Ms Yerkes.

The official outcomes might be introduced inside three days of the election however the consequence is hardly doubtful.