Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls

Tunisia’s incumbent President Kais Saied is ready to win the nation’s presidential election with 89.2 % help regardless of a low turnout, in accordance with exit polls broadcast on nationwide tv Sunday after polls closed.

Saied, 66, is predicted to win by a landslide, routing his challengers — imprisoned rival Ayachi Zammel, who was set to gather 6.9 % of the vote, and Zouhair Maghzaoui, with 3.9 %, stated unbiased polling group Sigma Conseil.

Three years after Saied staged a sweeping energy seize, rights teams worry re-election will solely additional entrench his rule within the nation, which turned the one democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings.

With the ouster of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisia prided itself on being the birthplace of these regional revolts towards authoritarianism.

However the north African nation’s path modified dramatically quickly after Saied’s election in 2019.

The Tunisian electoral board, ISIE, has stated about 9.7 million individuals had been eligible to vote, in a rustic whose inhabitants is round 12 million.

Solely 27.7 % of voters turned out to forged their ballots, it stated. Over 58 % had been males, and 65 % aged between 36 and 60.

“The vote’s legitimacy is undoubtedly tainted with candidates who might have overshadowed (Saied) being systematically sidelined,” stated Hatem Nafti, a political commentator and writer of a forthcoming ebook on the present president’s authoritarian rule.

“Saied has promised to eliminate traitors and enemies of Tunisia,” Nafti stated. “He’ll use his re-election to justify extra repression.”

ISIE had barred 14 candidates from becoming a member of the race, citing inadequate endorsements, amongst different technicalities.

The board is ready to announce the official election outcomes on Monday.

– ‘Weak legitimacy’ –

This yr’s turnout determine in comparison with 45 % in 2019 and is the bottom the nation has recorded in a presidential vote since its 2011 revolution.

The vote’s “democratic legitimacy is certainly weak, however there isn’t any minimal threshold,” stated north Africa analyst Pierre Vermeren. “The vast majority of Tunisians let it occur.”

Hosni Abidi, 40, stated he feared fraud after the electoral board additionally barred two native unbiased watchdogs from monitoring the vote.

“I do not need individuals to decide on for me,” he stated. “I need to examine the field for my candidate myself.”

Saied forged his vote alongside his spouse within the prosperous Ennasr neighbourhood, north of Tunis, within the morning.

Shortly after the exit polls had been introduced, tons of of supporters took to the road celebrating his anticipated win.

“I’m satisfied by his concepts and his politics,” stated Oumayma Dhouib, 25.

Saied’s 2021 energy seize noticed him rewrite the structure and crackdown on dissent, sparking criticism at residence and overseas.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has stated greater than “170 individuals are detained in Tunisia on political grounds or for exercising their basic rights”.

His prime challenger, Zammel, at the moment faces greater than 14 years in jail on accusations of getting solid endorsement signatures to allow him to face within the election.

Different jailed figures embrace Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist-inspired opposition occasion Ennahdha, which dominated political life after the revolution.

Additionally detained is Abir Moussi, head of the Free Destourian Social gathering, which critics accuse of desirous to deliver again the regime that was ousted in 2011.

– ‘Pharaoh manipulating the legislation’ –

In a speech on Thursday, Saied known as for a “huge turnout” to usher in what he known as an period of “reconstruction”.

He cited “a protracted conflict towards conspiratorial forces linked to overseas circles”, accusing them of “infiltrating many public companies and disrupting tons of of tasks” underneath his tenure.

Worldwide Disaster Group has stated that whereas Saied “enjoys vital help among the many working courses, he has been criticised for failing to resolve the nation’s deep financial disaster”.

“Many worry {that a} new mandate for Saied will solely deepen the nation’s socioeconomic woes, in addition to hasten the regime’s authoritarian drift,” the suppose tank stated.

Wajd Harrar, a 22-year-old pupil, stated that in 2019, whereas she was too younger to vote, “individuals had chosen a nasty president”.

This time, she stated, “I’ve the best to vote and I’ll give my vote to the least unhealthy candidate.”

On Friday, tons of of individuals protested within the capital, some holding indicators denouncing Saied as a “Pharaoh manipulating the legislation”.