Kais Saied Secures Second Term in Tunisia’s Contested Election

Saied’s closest challenger, businessman and former parliamentarian Ayachi Zammel, won 7.4 percent of the vote. Zammel spent much of the campaigning period behind bars and was eventually handed three prison sentences, totaling 14 years in prison, for allegedly falsifying documents, five days before election day.

Saied’s first term saw a departure from Tunisia’s hard-earned democracy towards authoritarianism and one-man-rule. His government has cracked down on civil society, marginalized communities, and Sub-Saharan migrants, provoking protests ahead of the election.

The former law professor changed Tunisia’s Constitution and, after finding himself at odds with the Administrative Court of Justice over the unlawful disqualification of three competitors, pushed a last-minute bill through parliament that stripped the court of its power to rule over electoral matters. Ahead of the polls, OkayAfricaspoke with young Tunisian activists who voiced their hope that the electoral result would be annulled, but this bill effectively stifled this possibility.

Continuing his populist rhetoric of fear-mongering, the 66-year-old president promised to cleanse the country of corruption and schemers in a speech given at his campaign headquarters. With Saied consolidating his power in a second term, many predict the continued erosion of human rights and civil liberties and the return to a state of affairs resembling the 20-year rule under Ben Ali. Sghayer Zakraoui, Law Professor at the University of Tunis, was quoted saying that Tunisian politics had once again returned to, "the absolute power of a single man who places himself above everyone else and believes himself to be invested with a messianic message.”

However, there are other voices anticipating that the wide boycott of this election destabilizes, rather than strengthens Saied, and that discontent will continue to grow.

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