In Tunisia, President Kaïs Saïed declared the winner of an election decided in advance

No suspense surrounded the presidential election which was held on Sunday October 6 in Tunisia. In this well-regulated partition, national television broadcast an exit poll at the start of the evening announcing the re-election of the outgoing president, Kaïs Saïed, with 89.2% of the votes. The only two candidates selected against him by the Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE), the former deputy and leader of the pan-Arab People’s Movement party Zouhair Maghzaoui, former supporter of Mr. Saïed, and the leader of a small liberal party, Ayachi Zammel, arrested at the beginning of September and sentenced on 1^is October, to twelve years in prison for “sponsorship falsification”would have obtained only 6.9% and 3.9% respectively, according to figures from the Sigma institute.

While the provisional results must be announced by the ISIE by Wednesday October 9 and the final results no later than November 9, the announced plebiscite of Mr. Saïed was immediately rejected by Ayachi Zammel. On his Facebook page, the imprisoned opponent denounced the publication of polls “in violation of the texts of the law, in order to guide public opinion”. Zouhair Maghzaoui called him “security forces to protect the process” electoral after first scores “wrong”.

The final participation rate, data expected by observers, amounted to 27.7% – or 2.7 million voters – indicated the ISIE during a press conference. A score significantly higher than the last elections – 11.3% during the second round of the 2022 legislative elections – but well below the first round of the 2019 presidential election where 49% of voters went to the polls.

“We realized that he was becoming an autocrat”

The election day took place peacefully. At midday, in several polling stations in downtown Tunis, voters, mostly elderly, took turns casting their ballots. Supporters of the outgoing president were the most numerous to openly express their choice. “He’s trying to change things for citizens. At least with him we have hope that the problems that have occurred in the country since the revolution [de 2011] find a solution »considers Chourouk Abdallah, 30 years old, specialized educator and strong supporter of the Head of State, who came to carry out her “ national duty”.

The opponents, on the other hand, were more discreet. In La Marsa, in the suburbs of the capital, Seif, a real name, 27 years old, master’s student, explains that he came « exercise [son] right to vote » pour “don’t let Kaïs Saïed decide for us”. In 2019, he nevertheless supported this professor of constitutional law, without partisan ties which seemed to him to be “ the alternative to Ennahda”, the Islamo-conservative party which has participated in all coalition governments since 2011, et “to the corrupt”. Mr. Saïed was then elected in the second round with 73% of the votes. But since the president assumed full powers in July 2021, “ we realized that he was becoming an autocrat”.

Seif is one of the rare young people we met who went to the polls. Of the 2.7 million votes counted, only 6% came from those under 35, according to the ISIE. Many of his friends, also opposed to the outgoing president, decided to abstain, considering the electoral process “illegitimate”. Since the announcement of the election date on July 2, numerous controversies have erupted. While the administrative court had ruled in favor of the reinstatement of three candidates previously excluded by the ISIE, the electoral body ignored justice. Despite criticism from the opposition and civil society organizations, Parliament amended the electoral law on September 27, removing the jurisdiction of the administrative court to resolve electoral disputes and making the Tunis Court of Appeal the sole authority to resolve these disputes.

Since his “strength” in July 2021, Kaïs Saïed gradually dismantled some of the democratic structures of the State put in place after the revolution of January 2011. He notably modified the structure of the Superior Council of the Magistracy which oversees the judicial power but also that of the Electoral body, of which it directly appoints certain members. The latter refused accreditation to two of the main local election observation associations, I Watch and Mourakiboun, due to accusations of “suspicious foreign financing (…) from countries with which Tunisia does not maintain diplomatic relations.

For the first time since 2011, European Union observers were not allowed to follow the vote. In some offices, only representatives of the Russian election commission, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and a few other organizations accredited by the authorities were present. The Tunisian Association for the Integrity and Democracy of Elections, one of them, declared Sunday evening, according to the official Tunisian news agency TAP, “having recorded a certain number of irregularities and embezzlement of varying degrees”notably “orientations towards voters or attempts by citizens to influence them”.