International Courant
On October 6, Tunisians will go to the polls for the primary spherical of presidential elections that opposition critics say are rigged in President Kais Saied’s favor and will sound the loss of life knell for Tunisian democracy.
Solely two candidates have been authorized to run towards the incumbent celebration in Sunday’s elections: left-wing nationalist Zouhair Magzhaoui, broadly seen as a paper candidate supporting Saied, and jailed chief of the liberal Azimoun celebration, Ayachi Zammel.
Weeks earlier than the election, Zammel obtained two jail sentences – one in all 20 months and one in all six months – for falsifying paperwork associated to his candidacy. On October 1, he was sentenced to an extra 12 years in jail in 4 circumstances associated to expressions of assist from voters. He has been behind bars since early September and is predicted to stay there by the elections. He says the costs towards him are false and politically motivated.
Along with Zammel, lots of the nation’s better-known politicians and celebration leaders who hoped to oppose Saied within the elections have both ended up in jail or been barred from operating by the Impartial Excessive Authority for Elections (ISIE) – a supposedly unbiased electoral fee that Many, for instance, grew to become an extension of the presidency beneath the far-reaching reforms that Saied had applied since he seized energy in July 2021.
The ISIE declared 14 of the 17 candidates who had registered to contest the elections “ineligible”. Three of them – former ministers Imed Daimi and Mondher Znaidi and opposition chief Abdellatif Mekki – gained their attraction towards ISIE’s determination on the Administrative Court docket of Tunisia, broadly seen because the North African nation’s final unbiased judicial physique since Saied the Supreme Court docket of Justice has dissolved. and fired dozens of judges in 2022.
But the ISIE rejected the ruling and declared that the authorized checklist of candidates, which contained solely the three names – Magzhaoui, Zammel and Saied – was remaining.
Shortly after the ISIE determination in late September, the Saied-controlled Basic Meeting handed a brand new regulation that formally strips the Administrative Court docket of all electoral authority, successfully ending unbiased judicial oversight of candidate choice and different election-related points .
The electoral unrest and the undermining of the Administrative Court docket have contributed to the resurgence of public protests on the streets of the Tunisian capital, Tunis.
Activists from throughout the political spectrum have joined demonstrations calling free of charge and honest elections, but in addition an finish to the crackdown on civil liberties and the criminalization of any criticism of Saeid and his supporters. The widespread protests had been the primary – other than protests in assist of Palestine – that the nation has witnessed in a number of years.
Nonetheless, the latest intervals of public unrest and open criticism of the president stay exceptions to the rule. Many vital voices within the nation have been silenced by legal guidelines and insurance policies designed to limit free speech. For instance, the introduction and frequent utility of Decree 54, a measure that criminalizes any on-line speech that’s subsequently deemed false, led to the imprisonment of many journalists and on-line critics and helped form a media panorama that was broadly supportive of the president .
In the meantime, President Saied continues to benefit from the assist of some Tunisians who stay disillusioned with conventional politics and politicians and see him as an antidote to what they see because the supply of the nation’s many issues: self-interested and publicity-hungry politicians and who put their pursuits first. and the pursuits of their events above the wants of the individuals.
There are additionally many Tunisians who see the system as damaged and say they’re not excited by collaborating in electoral politics. Within the 2022 parliamentary elections in Tunisia, solely 11 p.c of registered voters turned out to vote.
Towards this backdrop of widespread public disillusionment, a extremely managed media and a area of simply three candidates, few doubt that Sunday’s vote will lead to something apart from a landslide victory for the incumbent celebration.
An individual holds an indication throughout a protest towards President of Tunisia Kais Saied, who’s accused by demonstrators of rigging the October 6 presidential elections by detaining and intimidating his rivals, in Tunis, Tunisia, on September 13, 2024 ( Jihed Abidellaoui/Reuters)
Let’s take a more in-depth have a look at the three candidates:
Kais Saied: The incumbent
Social gathering: unbiased
Age: 66
Background:
Saied, a former regulation professor, had no political or marketing campaign expertise earlier than being elected president in 2019. He gained that election on a ticket to finish corruption and promote equality, largely buoyed by a groundswell of assist from younger voters. He pledged to advertise social justice, saying entry to well being care and water was a part of nationwide safety and that schooling would “immunize” youth towards “extremism.” Earlier than the second election, he refused to marketing campaign towards his then-imprisoned opponent, Nabil Karoui, saying it will “give him an unfair benefit.”
Nonetheless, as soon as Saied was elected president, he took a a lot much less democratic place. In July 2021, he closed parliament and dismissed the prime minister, starting to rule by decree whereas overseeing the dramatic rewrite of the structure. A brand new parliament, with significantly decreased powers, was reintroduced in March 2023, however has but to offer significant opposition to the president.
Throughout his first time period as president, along with introducing far-reaching reforms that helped him consolidate energy, he additionally pursued lawsuits towards all his political opponents, however particularly towards the self-proclaimed Muslim Democrats of the Ennahdha Social gathering. In April 2023, the celebration’s co-founder, chief and chairman of the previous parliament, Rached Ghannouchi, was arrested and sentenced to 1 yr in jail on fees of incitement towards state authorities. He was later jailed for one more three years over allegations that his celebration obtained overseas contributions. Many different high-profile celebration members had been fined and jailed on related fees. In September 2024, no less than 97 Ennahdha members had been arrested and charged with conspiracy and different fees beneath the ‘Counter-Terrorism Regulation’.
Rights teams have been vocal of their criticism of Saied, denouncing his crackdown on civil society, his criminalization of criticism of his authorities and the brutal therapy of unlawful black migrants and refugees beneath his rule.
A poster depicting presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel hangs at his celebration’s Azimoun headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia on October 1, 2024 (Jihed Abidellaoui/Reuters)
Ayachi Zammel
Social gathering: Azimoun
Age: 47
Background:
The beforehand little-known Ayachi Zammel stays on the poll regardless of his imprisonment.
Though uncommon, this isn’t the primary time a Tunisian politician has waged a presidential battle from a jail cell. In 2019, Kais Saied’s challenger within the remaining spherical, media mogul Nabil Karoui, oversaw nearly his total marketing campaign from jail after being detained on corruption fees. Karoui later disappeared whereas out on bail and his whereabouts stay unknown.
Earlier than his arrest in early September, Zammell’s political profession was comparatively simple.
Since coming into politics in 2019 as a member of former Prime Minister Youssef Chahed’s Tahya Tounes celebration, Zammel has adopted a largely centrist, liberal line and averted the extremes of Tunisian politics.
After leaving Tahya Tounes in 2020 attributable to “inner variations”, he joined the Nationwide Bloc as an unbiased MP in October 2020 and have become chairman of the Committee on Well being and Social Affairs in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like many, Zammell initially welcomed the dissolution of parliament in 2022, eight months after President Saied suspended it. Nonetheless, by September of the identical yr he had turn into vital of Saied’s actions.
In 2022, Zammell based the Azimoum Social gathering and served as its chief till August 2024, when he resigned to run for president.
Zouhair Magzhaoui
Social gathering: Echaab Motion (Individuals’s Motion)
Age: 58
Background:
Magzhaoui was initially a member of the Individuals’s Unionist Progressive Motion and has led the Echaab motion since 2013, after the 2 events merged the yr earlier than. The celebration’s earlier chief, Mohamed Brahmi, resigned after the merger and was assassinated two weeks later.
Brahmi’s homicide, like that of fellow left-wing politician Chokri Belaid, who was killed the identical yr, stays unsolved.
Regardless of serving as a member of the Tunisian parliament, the Meeting of the Individuals’s Representatives (ARP), from 2014 till its dissolution in 2022, he has repeatedly defended the president’s actions, together with his reformulation of the structure, describing them as essential to guard the president’s actions. defend the state towards corruption and mismanagement by the nation’s political elite.
Talking on native radio two years after what many described because the president’s auto-coup, he informed listeners: “July 25 (the date used to confer with the president’s seizure of energy) was hardly a whim of Kaïs Saïed, however a satisfaction of the president’s will. individuals.”
Magzhaoui was extremely vital of political Islam generally and of the Ennahdha celebration particularly, which he described in 2021 as corrupt and “serving the pursuits of the mafia and lobbies”. Earlier, in the course of the remaining session of the previous parliament, he twice signed motions of censure towards parliament speaker Ghannouchi.
Maghzaoui, a social conservative, has criticized Tunisia’s small LGBTQ group and has typically aligned herself with socially conservative positions in opposition to civil society organizations calling for human rights reforms.
Tunisia presidential elections: who’s a candidate and what’s at stake? | Elections Information
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