Saied eyes re-election in Tunisia with critics behind bars

Polls closed Sunday night in Tunisia after voting in a presidential election expected to see incumbent Kais Saied secure another five years in office while his main critics — including one contender — are behind bars.

Three years after Saied staged a sweeping power grab, rights groups fear re-election will only further entrench his rule in the country, which became the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings.

With the ouster of long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisia prided itself on being the birthplace of those regional revolts against authoritarianism.

But the North African country’s path changed dramatically soon after Saied’s democratic election in 2019.

The power grab by Saied, 66, saw him rewrite the constitution and cracked down on dissent, sparking criticism at home and abroad.

In a speech on Thursday, Saied called for a “massive turnout to vote” and usher in what he called an era of “reconstruction”.

By 1pm — five hours before the 5,000 polling station closed — only 14 per cent of voters had cast ballots, ISIE said.

The board’s spokesman, Mohamed Tlili Mansri, later said it was expecting around a 30 per cent turnout. That is roughly the same proportion of people who turned out in 2022 for a widely boycotted referendum on the new constitution.

Saied cast his vote alongside his wife in the affluent Ennasr neighbourhood, north of Tunis, in the morning.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has said more than “170 people are detained in Tunisia on political grounds or for exercising their fundamental rights”.

Jailed opposition figures include Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist-inspired opposition party Ennahdha, which dominated political life after the revolution.

Also detained is Abir Moussi, head of the Free Destourian Party, which critics accuse of wanting to bring back the regime that was ousted in 2011.