Tunisia: overwhelming victory for outgoing President Kaïs Saïed

Considered the favorite, outgoing President Kaïs Saïed won overwhelmingly, with more than 89% of the votes, the presidential election which took place on Sunday in Tunisia, according to exit polls, despite a very high turnout. weak.

Preliminary official results are expected Monday afternoon.

According to data from the Sigma Conseil institute broadcast on national television, Mr. Saïed obtained 89.2% of the votes in the first round, crushing the second candidate, Ayachi Zammel, a liberal industrialist unknown to the general public who did not obtained only 6.9% of the votes. The third candidate, a deputy from the pan-Arab left, Zouhair Maghzaoui, 59, won only 3.9% of the vote, according to Sigma.

The electoral authority ISIE announced a participation of 27.7% compared to 45% five years ago in the first round. The president of the ISIE, Farouk Bouasker, judged this rate respectablewhile this is the lowest rate for a first round of presidential voting since the overthrow of dictator Ben Ali in 2011, in this country which was the cradle of the democratic uprisings of the Arab Spring.

Speaking on Sunday evening in his campaign headquarters, Mr. Saïed said, in a martial tone, that he wanted continue the 2011 revolution and build a country cleansed of corrupt people and conspiracies.

Tunisia will remain free and independent and will never accept foreign interference.

Muzzled competitors

Only Mr. Zammel and Mr. Maghzaoui, second knives according to experts, were authorized to face Mr. Saïed, 66, out of initially 17 applicants, dismissed for alleged irregularities. The opposition, whose leading figures are in prison as well as ONG Tunisians and foreigners have criticized a distorted vote in favor of Mr. Saïed.

Ayachi Zammel has not been able to campaign because he has been imprisoned since the beginning of September and has three sentences of more than 14 years in prison for suspicion of false sponsorships.

Mr. Maghzaoui was considered a stoogebecause he carries a left-wing sovereignist project similar to that of Mr. Saïed, whom he supported until recently.

The legitimacy of the election is necessarily tainted when the candidates who could overshadow Mr. Saïed were systematically excludedcommented forAFP Tunisian political analyst Hatem Nafti, also stressing that he is the worst turnout since 2011.

The candidate selection process had been highly contested for the high number of sponsorships required, the imprisonment of known potential candidates as well as the ousting by the ISIE of the president’s strongest rivals, including Mondher Zenaidi, a former minister under the Ben Ali regime.

Authoritarian drift

For Pierre Vermeren, a French expert on the Maghreb, even if, with such a strong abstention, democratic legitimacy of this election is weak, Tunisia has a president and the majority of Tunisians let it happen. He noted analogies with neighboring Algeria, where no one questions the president Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

After the exit polls were announced, around 400 supporters of the president came out to celebrate his victory, waving flags and his photo in front of the municipal theater in central Tunis and chanting the people want Kaïs again.

A group sang the national anthem with enthusiasm. Oumayma Dhouib, 25, said to herself very happy with the victory of “Kaisoun”an affectionate nickname. The young woman assured that she was convinced by his ideas and his policieswhile his mother Khadija 52 years old trust to Kaïs Saïed.

Mr. Saïed, elected in 2019 with nearly 73% of the votes, was still popular when this specialist in constitutional law with the incorruptible image seized full powers in the summer of 2021, promising order in the face of political instability.

Three years later, many Tunisians criticize him for having devoted too much energy to settling scores with his opponents, in particular the Islamo-conservative Ennahdha party, dominant during the decade of democracy which followed the overthrow of dictator Ben Ali. , in 2011.

Since 2021, the ONG Tunisians and foreigners as well as the opposition, whose leading figures have been arrested, denounce authoritarian drift of Mr. Saïed through a dismantling of counter-powers and a stifling of civil society with arrests of trade unionists, activists, lawyers and political columnists.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 170 people are currently detained for political reasons or for exercising their fundamental rights.

Hatem Nafti was worried about a hardening of power towards critical voices, because Kaïs Saïed will be able to assert his coronation to justify the repression.

To read and watch: