Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election

Voting started in Tunisia’s presidential election on Sunday with no actual opposition to incumbent Kais Saied, who’s extensively tipped to win as his most outstanding critics are behind bars.

Three years after Stated staged a sweeping energy seize, the election is seen as a closing chapter in Tunisia’s experiment with democracy.

The North African nation had prided itself for greater than a decade for being the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings in opposition to dictatorship.

Polling opened at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) and is ready to finish at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT).

Electoral board ISIE has mentioned preliminary outcomes ought to come no later than Wednesday however could also be identified earlier.

At one polling station in central Tunis, AFP reporters noticed a bunch of largely older males lining as much as vote.

Forward of polling day, there have been no marketing campaign rallies or public debates, and practically all the marketing campaign posters in metropolis streets have been of Saied.

With little hope for change in a rustic mired in financial disaster, the temper amongst a lot of the voters has been one among resignation.

“We now have nothing to do with politics,” Mohamed, a 22-year-old who gave solely his first identify for worry of retribution, advised AFP within the capital.

Neither he nor his pals deliberate to vote, he mentioned, as a result of they believed it was “ineffective”.

After rising to energy in a landslide in 2019, Saied, now 66, led a sweeping energy seize that noticed him rewrite the structure.

A burgeoning crackdown on dissent ensued, and quite a lot of Saied’s critics throughout the political spectrum had been jailed, sparking criticism each at house and overseas.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has mentioned that greater than “170 persons are detained in Tunisia on political grounds or for exercising their elementary rights”.

Jailed opposition figures embrace Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist-inspired opposition get together Ennahdha, which dominated political life after the revolution.

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

– Little enthusiasm –

ISIE mentioned about 9.7 million persons are anticipated to prove, however the close to certainty of a Saied win and the nation’s mounting hardships have impressed little to no eagerness to vote.

The Worldwide Disaster Group assume tank mentioned on Friday that “the president’s nationalist discourse and financial hardship” have “corroded any enthusiasm peculiar residents might need felt concerning the election”.

“Many worry {that a} new mandate for Saied will solely deepen the nation’s socio-economic woes, in addition to hasten the regime’s authoritarian drift,” it mentioned.

Voters are being offered with nearly no various after ISIE barred 14 hopefuls from standing within the race, citing inadequate endorsements amongst different technicalities.

Lots of of individuals protested within the capital on Friday, marching alongside a closely policed Habib Bourguiba Avenue as some demonstrators bore indicators denouncing Saied as a “Pharaoh manipulating the legislation”.

Standing in opposition to him Sunday are former lawmaker Zouhair Maghzaoui, who backed Saied’s energy seize in 2021, and Ayachi Zammel, a little-known businessman who has been in jail since his bid was authorised by ISIE final month.

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.

In a speech on Thursday, Saied referred to as for a “large turnout to vote” and usher in what he referred to as an period of “reconstruction”.

He cited “an extended battle in opposition to conspiratorial forces linked to overseas circles”, accusing them of “infiltrating many public companies and disrupting a whole lot of initiatives” below his tenure.

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