Polling stations in Tunisia will open their doors this Sunday for the first round of the presidential election, marked by an electoral campaign without much dynamism marked by legal-political controversies.
The electoral body in Tunisia currently has 9,753,217 registered voters, including 6.6% residing abroad who started voting this Friday.
Tunisians must therefore choose between three candidates whose applications have been accepted, namely the businessman Ayachi Zammel, founder of the “Azimoun” movement and currently in detention, Zouhair Maghzaoui, secretary general of the People’s Movement, and the president outgoing Kaïs Saïed, who wants to run for a second five-year term.
This is the third presidential election in Tunisia since the revolution that overthrew the late Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. The first round of the 2014 elections saw the participation of 27 candidates, while that of 2019 had 26.
At the same time, the current electoral campaign, which began on September 14, has been dominated by political and legal debates and controversies concerning the electoral framework, in particular the legislative modifications adopted by the Assembly of People’s Representatives, which, in absence of a constitutional court, transferred jurisdiction to resolve electoral disputes from the administrative court to the common law courts.
Among the candidates, Zouhair Maghzaoui is the only one to have actively led his campaign on the ground, carrying out 98 activities such as promotional tours and distribution of leaflets, according to the results of the first 14 days published by the High Independent Monitoring Authority. elections.
At the same time, supporters of Kaïs Saïed organized 221 activities, including meetings and meetings across the country.
In contrast, Ayachi Zammel’s campaign, interrupted by his arrest following accusations over the validity of his electoral sponsorships, was almost non-existent, limited to a single press conference.
The winner of the elections will benefit from extensive powers under the 2022 constitution, which marked a break with the semi-parliamentary system established by the 2014 constitution.
With MAP
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