International Courant
Sunday’s elections in Tunisia would be the first since President Kais Saied was elected to energy as an unbiased in 2019 with no prior political expertise and later prolonged his rule by means of a “self-coup” in July 2021. He suspended parliament, fired the prime minister, Hichem Mechichi, and took over government energy.
Rights teams, each worldwide and home, have criticized declining requirements of civil liberties, freedom of expression and waves of arbitrary arrests focusing on the president’s critics and opponents beneath Saied’s presidency.
However, in opposition to the backdrop of widespread public disillusionment with get together politics, few doubt that Saied shall be returned for a second time period in an election broadly seen by observers at house and overseas as “rigged” prematurely.
How far has Tunisia fallen?
A protracted highway.
Though removed from good, Tunisia has lengthy been hailed as the only success of the 2011 collection of revolutions that some observers dubbed the “Arab Spring.” In Tunisia, the rebellion – dubbed by some because the Jasmine Revolution – culminated within the ouster of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.
Within the aftermath of the revolution, the starvation for political engagement was nearly palpable. Rights teams, NGOs and particular person activists surged ahead, wanting to take part in a society that was rediscovering itself after years of autocracy.
Even the assassinations of two high-profile politicians, Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, in 2013 couldn’t derail the transition from autocracy to democracy, with tens of hundreds of Tunisians taking to the streets to defend the positive aspects made since 2011.
The unrest didn’t immediate the intervention of 4 of the nation’s most necessary civil society organizations, the nation’s normal commerce union, the UGTT; the commerce affiliation, UTICA; the Tunisian League for Human Rights, LTDH; and the Bar Affiliation, ONAS – who collectively ensured that parliamentary democracy may face up to the shock and that the transition remained on monitor.
The teams’ efforts had been later internationally acknowledged and every was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.
Had been issues good in Tunisia earlier than Saied took energy?
Not likely.
Tunisia’s democracy was messy. Throughout the ten years between the Tunisian revolution and the present president’s seizure of energy, the nation had 9 extraordinarily unstable governments.
In opposition to a backdrop of entrenched unemployment, financial decline and religiously impressed unrest, Tunisia’s politicians confronted accusations of prioritizing self-interest and alliance-building over robust motion, not least in tackling the nation’s safety providers and financial system, who remained nearly fully unreformed.
Tunisia’s final parliament earlier than its dissolution in 2021 proved to be significantly chaotic. Arguments between members of parliament typically turned violent, politicians organized sit-ins within the chamber and one member, Abir Moussi – an outspoken opponent of Saied who was arrested in 2023 – arrived in Could 2021 wearing bulletproof vests and a crash helmet for a debate. .
In the meantime, poverty, protests and social unrest grew, resulting in well-liked disillusionment with get together politics and particularly with the nation’s dominant political get together, the so-called Muslim Democrats Ennahdha.
But Tunisia additionally handed a variety of groundbreaking legal guidelines throughout this era.
Though implementation has remained patchy, parliament handed groundbreaking legal guidelines in 2017 criminalizing violence in opposition to girls and women. A yr later – in a extremely ironic transfer, given the present racially charged therapy of black migrants – parliament additionally oversaw the passage of a invoice criminalizing racism.
A supporter of Tunisian President Kais Saied holds his picture alongside Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, on Thursday, July 25, 2024. The protest commemorated the anniversary of Kais Saied consolidating his energy in a constitutional coup, and was additionally the 67th anniversary of the inspiration of the republic (Ons Abid/AP)
Can the elections remedy Tunisia’s issues?
It is not possible.
At the moment, there are solely three candidates in Sunday’s vote, together with Saied. One, Ayachi Zammel, is in jail serving a number of sentences after being convicted of forging his election papers. The opposite, Zouhair Maghzaoui, was a recognized supporter of the president earlier than his candidacy.
Fourteen different presidential election candidates had been rejected by the Unbiased Excessive Authority for Elections (ISIE) earlier this yr. Nonetheless, not less than three of those rejections had been overturned in September by one of many nation’s highest courts, the Administrative Courtroom, additional calling into query the ISIE’s credibility. The physique had been restructured by Saied in April 2022 and has since been led by presidential loyalist Farouk Bouasker.
In late September, the nation’s parliament, which was reconstituted in 2022 with a structure of Saied’s design, broke the impasse and stripped the Administrative Courtroom of its powers to supervise the elections.
Along with the candidates excluded by the ISIE, there are the numerous political figures and critics of the president who’re languishing in jail on fees by rights teams, together with Amnesty Worldwide, that they’re “fabricated.”
The prisoners embody each former Ennahdha chief, 83-year-old Rached Ghannouchi, and his arch-rival, Abir Moussi, chief of the pre-revolutionary continuation get together, the Free Destourian Celebration (PDL).
Abir Moussi, chairman of the Tunisian Free Destourian Celebration, speaks to the media throughout a protest in Tunis on November 20, 2021. She was arrested simply over a yr in the past, on October 3, 2023 (Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters)
What concerning the judiciary?
Aside from the executive court docket, Tunisia’s judiciary has been largely neutered since Saied dissolved the elected Supreme Judicial Council (HJC) in February 2022 and changed it with a physique largely appointed by himself.
In June of the identical yr, the president additionally arbitrarily dismissed 57 judges. Their attraction in opposition to this dismissal was later accepted by the Administrative Courtroom in August that yr. Nonetheless, nobody has resumed their put up.
Extra essentially, in line with Amnesty, the 2022 structure, whose drafting was overseen by Saied, has eliminated lots of the safeguards for the judiciary to perform with full independence and impartiality.
What concerning the press?
The media has been largely silent.
Many critics of President Saied or his allies have been jailed beneath Decree 54, a controversial piece of laws handed in 2022 that primarily criminalizes any public speech later discovered to be false.
In response to Human Rights Watch, since its passage, lots of the nation’s best-known critics have been jailed or subjected to judicial harassment beneath the phrases of the 2022 laws or a few of the archaic legal guidelines left over from earlier than the revolution.
The consequence has been a silencing of public criticism of the regime, with life-style exhibits changing the political dialogue applications that after flooded agendas and the nationwide press returning to the usual of severity beforehand utilized to the nation’s autocrats .
What about civil society?
Whereas public outcry adopted Saied’s seizure of energy, the demonstrations had been largely muted and ultimately extinguished.
Secular supporters of the previous parliament refused to protest alongside their Islamist counterparts, whereas Tunisia’s broader activist neighborhood – which had lengthy been prepared to protest in opposition to the members of the previous parliament – appeared clearly reluctant to show of their favor .
Within the ensuing years, many civil society organizations, together with people who communicate on behalf of the hundreds of migrants who continuously journey by means of Tunisia, have been closed and their leaders jailed.
These arrests included these of anti-racism activist Saadia Mosbah, who was arrested in Could on fees of monetary crimes, and Sihem Ben Sedrine, the previous head of the nation’s Reality and Dignity Fee, the physique charged with investigating the injustices of the previous regime. was jailed in August on fees of falsifying a report.
Though small in comparison with earlier mass demonstrations in Tunisia, protests have just lately returned to the streets of the capital. In mid-September, hundreds demonstrated in opposition to the president’s stricter restrictions on freedom of expression and what many see as electoral interference. Though demonstrations proceed, none have matched the preliminary protests in scale.
What’s at stake in Tunisia’s presidential elections on Sunday? | Elections Information
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